Yesterday was a bit blurry as I was busy passing through the great city of Osaka and its subway system! Yeah, that is how detached this post will be relative to the title. I was just traveling through the city from Nara on my way to Koya, and thought why not visit the Osaka castle quick, as opposed to make this a travel day only. It was not a bad idea, but if you expecting Shogun vibes by visiting the Osaka castle today, you will be disappointed.
The modern Osaka Castle is a reconstruction that differs significantly from how it was depicted in the Shōgun series (2024), which aimed for a period-accurate representation of the castle as it stood around the year 1600. The main keep (or tenshu) visible today is a concrete reconstruction dating primarily from 1931, with further renovations later in the 20th century. It serves as a museum. The current main keep is a reconstruction of the Edo period castle built by the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1620s, after the original Toyotomi-era castle was destroyed in the Siege of Osaka (1614-1615).
If you remember the show, the Shōgun series is set around 1600, focusing on the period just after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (The Taikō in the series), when his castle, the original Osaka Castle, was at its height. As depicted on the show the castle at that time of a wooden dark construction, but today it is light colored, mostly white, stone (granite), concrete mixed construction. Although the "moat inside a moat geometry" as shown in the series, still is the same.
Since the original structure no longer exists, the castle in the series was mostly created using CGI reconstruction for exterior shots (often visible in the title sequence) and physical sets for the interior chambers and halls.
So bottom line, there is little to no resemblance of Osaka castle as seen today, to the one featured in Shogun. What you do see today, is a lot of tourists. Surprise! NOT!
The irony lies in the fact that Osaka Castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to be the ultimate statement of absolute power and an impenetrable fortress. In its prime, the castle's defenses were meant to keep the enemy out. Today, its grandeur draws in millions, and the biggest "battle" is navigating the queue to the main keep's elevator. LOL! And I kid you not! I refused to show you the picture of long line and battling the crowd elbowing each other (okay, not quite, but you get the point!).
What I can tell you, that the Osaka Castle is a high-traffic, accessible, and highly marketed urban landmark. This contributes to its massive popularity and, consequently, the intense crowds. It is still cool and it is excellent for an urban day out, but please don't expect any ancient vibes.
Especially inside the main tower, the experience often feels less like an exploration of history and more like being funneled up and down a staircase with hundreds of other people—a stark contrast to the quiet dignity you might expect from a samurai-era fortress.
Whenever, you see giant electric golf-cart buses driving tourist from the entrance to the main tower, because they don't want to walk the 15-min through the impressive stone structured moats, you realized that you have arrived in the heart of Modern Japan, where tall electronics stores like Bic Camera and its Pachinko Arcade at the basement, is the statement. Sigh, I had to go there, to get me a replacement Canon SLR camera battery!
Yes, this here is a different world. Perhaps requires a completely different post, but if I forget I just put the pictures here to remind me to get back to it at a later time.
Okay, time to finish on a high note. If you ever want to visit the castle, I recommend it if you are in the city for some other reason. It is also okay if you are there for work and have an afternoon off, go indeed visit. I wouldn't go there just to visit the castle thinking that you are going to walk through the history as shown in Shogun! That is all that I am saying!
Here is a map to guide you! I thought it was cool :)
