Edo Castle

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Edo Castle (江戸城 -jō) was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in what is now the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, but was then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here, and as the residence of the shogun and location of the bakufu, it functioned as the military capital during the Edo period of Japanese history. Along with the Meiji Restoration, it became the residence of the Emperor of Japan, or in Japanese kōkyo. Some moats, walls and ramparts survive. However, during the Edo period, the grounds were much more extensive, with Tokyo Station and the Marunouchi section of the city lying within the outermost moat. It also encompassed Kita-no-maru Park, the Nippon Budokan Hall and other landmarks of the area.

Around the end of the Heian or the beginning of the Kamakura period, Edo Shigetsugu became the first warrior to establish his base in the area. He built his residence in what is now the Honmaru and Ninomaru part of Edo Castle. The Edo clan perished in the fifteenth century as a result of uprisings in the Kantō region, and Ota Dokan, a retainer of the Ogigayatsu Uesugi family, built Edo Castle in 1457.

The castle came under the control of the Late Hōjō clan. The Siege of Odawara of 1590 left the castle vacant, and when Toyotomi Hideyoshi offered Tokugawa Ieyasu six eastern provinces, Ieyasu accepted, making Edo Castle his base. He later defeated Toyotomi Hideyori, son of Hideyoshi, at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and emerged as the political leader of Japan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of Seii Taishogun in 1603. Edo Castle was the center of Tokugawa administration. The grounds grew with the addition of Nishinomaru, Nishinomaru-shita, Fukiage, and Kitanomaru to the existing Honmaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru. The perimeter measured 16 km. Ieyasu mobilized the daimyo to carry out the construction, which reached completion in 1636, while his grandson Iemitsu was shogun.

Originally, Edo Castle had a tenshu, or central donjon, in the style typical of castles of Japan. However, the tenshu was destroyed along with many other sections of the castle grounds in the 1657 Meireki fire; it was never rebuilt. Despite this, jidaigeki (such as Abarembo Shogun) set in Edo usually depict Edo Castle as having a donjon, and substitute Himeji Castle for that purpose.

On April 21, 1701, in Matsu no Ōrōka (the Great Pine Corridor) of Edo Castle, Asano Takumi-no-kami drew his short sword and attempted to kill Kira Kōzuke-no-suke for terribly insulting him. This triggered the events of the Forty-seven Ronin.

Many place names in Tokyo derive from Edo Castle. Otemachi ("the town in front of the great gate"), Takebashi ("the Bamboo Bridge"), Toranomon ("the Tiger Gate"), Uchibori Dōri ("Inner Moat Street"), Sotobori Dōri ("Outer Moat Street"), and Marunouchi ("Within the enclosure") are examples.

The Edo castle compound was renamed Tokyo-jō (東京城, "Tokyo castle") in October, 1868. , was then renamed Kōjō (皇城, "Imperial castle") in 1869. The site of the donjon, which burned in the 1657 Meireki fire, is now the site of the Imperial Palace Kyūjō (宮城, "Palace castle") built in 1888. Most recently, the site was renamed Kōkyo (皇居, "Imperial Palace", literally "Imperial Residence") in 1948.