Tokugawa Ieyasu who was ordered to change his territory to Edo, present time Tokyo, by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, set about expansion and repair work of early Edo Castle immediately after moving into Edo. Japan’s largest castle, whose total area was twice as big as the second largest Osaka Castle, was completed at long last in the first half of 1600’s. The perimeter of the outer moat was 14 kilometers and that of the inner moat was 8 kilometers. Since then, Edo Castle had been owned by 15 successive Tokugawa shoguns for about 260 years as a de facto central government to control Japan’s politics and economy through about 300 daimyo feudal lords. The first photo shows the stone foundation for the main castle tower.
After the earliest castle tower was destroyed in the great fire of Meireki, the then Tokugawa shogun decided to discontinue reconstruction work of the castle tower to put the highest priority on restoration work of the urban area of Edo. The restoration work of the tower was suspended when a stone foundation was completed. The second photo shows the old site of successive shogun’s mansion and the central feudal government. To be more precise, there used to stand “o-oku” for the shoguns' legal wife, concubines, their little children and female workers, “chu-oku” just for the shoguns and “omote” for the central organization of politics and economy. These important buildings were destroyed by repeated lightning strikes after the entire castle was handed over to the new government led by the then Emperor in Kyoto.


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