5/17/24: Osaka's Castle Keep & Two Unusual Temples!

Steven and I joked that the staff at the McDonald's just down the street from our hotel must have buns of steel to deliver patrons' food to the eating area located up these steep steps umpteen times a day!

As we walked toward Osaka Castle, our first sight of the day, Steven and I were again struck by the city's imaginative architecture. 

When few homeowners had their own receivers in the early days of radio, people gathered around outdoor speaker towers like this one. Japan's first one was probably built in 1930 in Osaka's Tenno-ji Ward or district. There were about 450 towers located throughout Japan by 1943. Their designs varied widely but many resembled traditional Japanese lanterns like this one. Most towers only ran for ten minutes at a time when a button turned on the AM radio. The most popular were sumo matches and baseball games. Open-air radio was also useful for group exercise like short calisthenics programs broadcast several times a day.

A 75m-wide moat was located south of the Osaka Castle's Ninomaru or Outer Bailey. Three of the seven corner turrets that were built atop the inner stone walls burned down in 1628 and two more were lost in air raids in WW II.

Osaka Castle, Japan's largest, was built by feudal lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi in 1583 as a military stronghold to wage war against rebellious feudal lords in distant provinces. When he died fifteen years later, he had succeeded in doing what no other man had done - he squashed his enemies and united all of Japan under his control. After the castle burned down during the Summer War aka the Osaka War of 1615 when Toyotomi's successors were defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the castle was rebuilt in 1629. The main tower was destroyed by lightning in 1665 and the rest of the castle burned in 1868 as the Tokugawa shogunate made their last stand against imperial forces in what came to be known as the Meiji Restoration.

Osaka Castle Park opened as Otemae Park in 1924 on the ruins of Osaka Castle. The main tower was reconstructed in 1931 through donations from Osaka citizens and was renamed Osaka Castle Park. It was later expanded to include the construction of Forest Park which we saw later after taking a wrong turn to exit the castle park!

Otemon Gate at the castle's front entrance was built in 1628 during the early Edo Period. It was designed in the Koraimon style with a larger roof laid atop two front pillars and smaller roofs supported by the front and rear pillars on both sides. 

Though the present ferroconcrete-made castle was not as extensive as the original, it is still considered as of the country's most impressive and famous with its massive stone walls, gold roof, and black-and-gold details.

A large camphor tree in the middle of the square in front of the main tower honored Toyotomi for unifying the country and ending almost a century and a half of civil war. 

Reinforced concrete, rare at the time, was used to rebuild the tower also known as the keep and donjon. It withstood WW II's aerial bombardment. The castle was designated as an Important Cultural Property in 1997. We had to smile when reading the sign that said the Main Tower was in its third and longest incarnation since 1931 as the first tower only lasted for 31 years during Toyotomi, the second for 40 years during Tokugawa!

Inside the tower, a magnificent folding screen meticulously illustrated intense fighting scenes from the Summer War of Osaka minutely, depicting 5,071 people, 348 horses, 1,387 banners, 947 spears, and 119 bows with miniature figures laid out below. 

From atop the eighth-floor donjon or keep, 50m above the square, we had 360-degree views of the castle park, and Osaka's imposing skyline including the mountains in the distance.

Other folding screens pictured provincial festivals, ...

places of note in the temple city of Kyoto, ...

seasonal rituals in Edo, current-day Tokyo, ...

the castle town of Osaka, ...

and scenes from the Sengoku Battle during the country's civil war.

The full-scale reproduction of Toyotomi's Gold Room was made by a goldsmith and was designed to be dismantled for storage and transportation.

The Long Spear was used during the Sengoku period, the Age of Civil Wars from 1544 until 1611. It was used by Toyotomi's retainer, Yoshiharu Mosuke Horio, who later became the feudal lord of Toda Castle. 

The Armor with makie-lacquered cuirass included the design of the sun, moon, and dragon. It belonged to Matable Goto who played an active role as a powerful military commander on Toyotomi's side during the the Summer War. The helmet had a full head of hair implanted with bear fur. The dragon was s sacred beast that called forth clouds to make it rain. On the upper part, the sun was painted in gold and the moon in silver, both deified in Buddhism and used as symbols of immortality and rebirth.

The model depicted the castle during its Golden Age in the Tokugawa Period was based on a scale of 1 to 350.

Close observation of the castle's stone walls has revealed 50,000-60,000 stone blocks with carved markings such as characters and patterns. Almost 2,000 types of markings had various meanings and purposes including family seals or crests of feudal lords ordered by the Shogunate to carry out construction, the height of the stone wall, the order of stone-laying, as well as boundary markers of allocated construction sites. Photos below courtesy of Osaka Castle.

When Toyotomi built Osaka Castle, the main tower's O-mune or top roof was embellished with a pair of golden shachi-gawara or roof tile in the form of a dolphin-like fish. They were restored in 1931 according to original estimates and later repaired in 1996. This was a full-scale replica of the one on the man tower's south side we'd just viewed. 

Brave figures of fukuko or tigers watching for game were illustrated on baseboards of the outer walls of the main tower. When the tower was restored in 1931, it was remodeled after the original Toyotomi-built Main Tower which meant images of tigers were brought back to life after 316 years. Now, eight kinds of four tigers carved in relief adorn the keep's walls so that they keep watch over the neighborhood. 

During the Toyotomi period, golden ornaments like this chrysanthemum-shaped fixture were used on the castle's top and largest gable roof. Metal ornaments like this made of copper plate topped with two layers of gold leaf now grace the roofs.

I watched as people had fun dressing up in period clothing including restored samurai helmets and battle surcoats of a warlord during the Sengoku era.

I remember not being a huge fan of the castle when we visited because of the enormous number of people there. The line to enter was long, the crowds of people jammed together in narrow corridors and exhibition rooms were claustrophobic, and the numbers in confined spaces on the balcony were close to overwhelming. Now, with the benefit of hindsight and the more distant memory of the masses of people, I look at the pictures and recall the castle with the deep admiration it deserves. 

The other side of the square was once the location of Kishu Goten, an ornate Tokugawa-era mansion but it burned down in 1947 leaving only this delightful Japanese Garden.

During WW II, Japan's Imperial Army built a heavily fortified concrete bunker just beyond the tower to house one of the country's few Air Defense Command Centers. From this location, the army coordinated defenses against American air raid warnings to the surrounding areas. The bunker's impressive structure had four stories and included concrete walls over a meter thick. Women and girls, some of them just high-school students, worked as radio operators at the Center. Though the Command Center survived the war, it was dismantled 25 years later when the city prepared to host the Expo '70 World's Fair. Ironically, the only Air Defense Command Center that remains is located in Hiroshima where it survived the atomic bombing. 

Though Steven and I 'missed' the sign for the park's exit and ended up strolling all the way around the very large park, it worked in our favor as we had time to unwind from the crowds and take pleasure in the peaceful Peach and Plum Groves in Forest Park.

A metro ride took us to the once-thriving temple town of Tennoji-ku with Shitennōji Temple at its center. The area had almost impossibly skinny buildings!

Not taking guided tours but rather being on our own and using public transportation to temples and other sights certainly adds a chunk of time but the positives of traipsing down lanes with no other foreign tourists we'd never otherwise have seen far outweighed any negatives. Peeking over the wall was a large cemetery. 

Shitennōji, one of Japan's oldest temples and the first ever to be built by the state was founded in 593 by Prince Shōtoku, a critical figure in Japanese history who played a leading role in introducing Buddhism to Japan. He named the temple after the shitenno, four heavenly kings of Buddhist tradition who guard the world from evil. Shōtoku had prayed to these kings during a time of war, and when the war was over he had the temple built to give thanks. 

Beyond the pond was the temple's Rokujireisando Prayer Hall.

    

Though this temple complex has a long history, most of the buildings have been destroyed by fire and rebuilt several times. Though several of the current buildings dated just from the 1960s and 1970s, they were always carefully reconstructed to reflect the original 6th-century design.

After wandering past several unnamed buildings, we reached the five-story Treasure House on the east side of the temple complex. When Prince Shōtoku founded Shitennōji, he placed six busshari, actual or symbolic Buddha relics, and six hairs from his own head inside the cornerstone pillar to signify his search for salvation across the Six Realms of Buddhist cosmology. 

The inside of the hall was decorated with colorful murals painted by Yamashita Maki, 1890–1973, that rendered scenes of Buddha figures teaching or descending from heaven. We felt like we'd been transported to an Indian pagoda as the images were strikingly different from what we'd witnessed at other Buddhist temples in Japan.

The primary object of worship in the hall or pagoda was a statue of the temple’s founder, Prince Shōtoku as a manifestation of Guze Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. When Prince Shōtoku was victorious over the Mononobe clan, who opposed the spread of Buddhism throughout Japan, he attributed his victory to the Four Heavenly Kings. As an expression of his gratitude, he established Shitennōji and dedicated it to them.

Unseen by visitors were various documents and sacred artifacts many of which are registered National Treasures.

Facing the Treasure House was another glorious pagoda but I didn't see its name. Inside were more statues and Indian-themed paintings.

More photos of the almost deserted temple complex:

The Lecture Hall in the complex had still more colorful paintings and statues that caught our attention.

Leaving by the temple's West Gate allowed me to capture this cute shot.

Not far away in the same Tennoji area of Osaka was another Buddhist temple but Isshin-ji, because of its temple’s gate, was like no other. Though Japan has thousands of temples and we'd certainly toured our fair share, some possess a uniqueness that makes visiting them an absolute must. Instead of the traditional wooden structure, Isshin-ji of Buddhism's Jyodo sect had an arresting, contemporary geometric structure of steel, glass, and concrete.

One of the temple buildings was built in 2002 and for some reason was designed by the current head priest, also an architect, to resemble a church. Amida, the principal Buddha in many sects of Buddhism is a common effigy on display at temples. 

Okotsu Butsu literally means bone Buddha and the Amidas on display were cast from resin and the ashes of those who have died. The first statue was brought to the temple in 1887 and since then one has been produced every ten years. Though it seemed a little gruesome, many Buddhists must believe it is the greatest honor to spend the afterlife so close to Buddha.

We watched as temple security and a monk collected donations.

We were overdue for a rest in the nearby Keitakuen Garden!

Another cute bathroom sign!

At 300 meters tall, Osaka's Abeno Harukas was the tallest skyscraper in Japan when it was completed in 2014 until last year. Covering over 100,000 square meters of retail space, Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Department Store is the largest department store in Japan. The mega complex is also comprised of an art museum, a small shrine and vegetable garden, and a 360-degree observation deck. We could only imagine how spectacular the sunset views would be of Kobe, the Inland Sea & parts of Nara & Wakayama prefectures!

Tennoji Park was a large green oasis in the middle of the crowded city.

In our overprotective society in the US, I couldn't imagine children as young as these taking the packed metro to and from school every day without any adult supervision, especially since we noticed them getting off at separate stops and therefore didn't live near each other. I admired not only the eight-year-olds' (?) apparent maturity and confidence but the sense of independence their parents and school staff must have ingrained in them. 

As you might have gathered from these two posts, Osaka far surpassed our expectations - it was an exciting city with lively architecture, fun shopping experiences in the shotengai, a lovely canal location, unusual street art, an imposing castle, and temples far different from what we'd seen before. 

Next post: Onto Kurashiki, surely Japan's most arrestingly cute town!

Posted on July 23rd, 2024 from smoke-filled Denver as fires from my native Canada fill the skies. The seismic US political events of the last couple of days have filled many in the US with hope. Please continue to take care of yourself and your loved ones as we navigate this changing world.