Tuesday I took a day trip to two very historical cities in Japan, Kamakura, which was once the Shogunate seat of power in Japan and Odawara, home to the Hojo clan, one of the most powerful feudal clans in Japan. The latter is what I will focus on for this post.
Odawara castle, Odawara-jo, is located in Odawara city, Kanagawa-ken, about 1 hour 20minutes south west from Shinjuku by train.
From the station it's about a 7min walk to the castle grounds. Upon arrival you reach a large moat. The castle is surrounded on 2 sides by this moat and 2 sides by a hill that the castle sits on.
The two routes into the castle cross over the moat via bridges. The main entrance takes you through several gates and baileys and is on the south west side. This route also has one of the only two remaining lookout turrets shown in the picture below. The others were destroyed by earthquakes or razed by the Meiji Government.
The frist gate.
**History **
Now that we are entering the castle grounds lets talk a little about the history.
Odawara Castle, Odawara-jo, dates back to the 1300's during the Kamakura Jidai(period) when the Shogunate took the seat power from the Emperor in Kyoto and relocated it to Kamakura. In that time there was no castle, but there was strategic fortification on the exact spot the castle would later be built on, a large hill overlooking much of the city.
The Battle of Odawara in 1590 that dethroned the Hojo clan involved a siege of the castle for 3 months by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and 150,000 warriors.
The Castle that stands there now, rebuilt after fires & earthquakes, dates back to the 1633. It is 5 stories tall off of the foundation and offers incredible views to the city & bay. Even today it is an impressive sight, but it must have been much more so 500 years ago.
Continuing on, after passing through the first gate & bailey you enter the second bailey where the feudal lord would reside. There are no more buildings here except a tourist information building that was constructed in modern times.
The path continues to the main gate & bailey into the upper castle grounds.
The main gate, a building in itself, was being renovated so I couldn't get a picture of the exterior, but here is the interior with about 9' tall doors and massive beams about 2' in diameter.
Passing through this gate leads you into a large courtyard with ume, plum and sakura, cherry trees. These open spaces probably housed buildings during the castle's heydays.
The ume trees are starting to bloom.
On the path up to the castle, there is a mock up of how the carpenters built their walls.
Just beyond this exhibit you cross over a bridge up to the last gate before the castle.
Then you are in the main courtyard of the castle.
One impressive attraction here, besides the castle, is this 400 year old, towering pine tree.
On to the main attraction.
Up a large flight of stairs you enter the first floor of the castle and the admissions booth. Admission into the castle is only $5.10.
The interior is completely modern and you wouldn't know you are in a castle.
The second floor offers a history of the castle as well as highlighting it's construction as well as other castles throughout Japan.
The third floor has all kinds of artifacts. Some that have been dug up during the modern era when renovating, others donated or recycled.
The 4th floor was an exhibit that was closed so we continue to the 5th, top floor. This currently is a shrine space. It may have been so during the feudal times as well, but it also served as the look out post with incredible views of the area.
North
West
South
East
And a few more looking east & northeast towards the city & bay.
Standing up here I imagined the terror the Hojo clan must have felt seeing Hideyoshi's 150,000 strong man army camped outside the castle grounds. It must have been an incredible sight.
Back inside the top floor, this is the shrine recently re-built with local Japanese cedar.
A small model shows the framing of this top floor.
That's the end of this post. If you are ever looking to visit a castle in Japan, Odawara is the closest to Tokyo. It's worth a visit and there are many other things to do in and around Odawara. The official castle website is here: https://odawaracastle.com
I'll close with a few more pictures of the castle exterior.
