Hiroshima Castle Research Paper

Osaka Castle is one of the most beautiful and well known historical landmarks in Japan. The castle has a long and interesting history and has had several incarnations. The castle began life as a small temple known as Ishiyama Hongan-ji. During its more than 500 years of history the building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, because of its strategic and later cultural importance. Hongan-ji was originally built as a place of retirement for the Holy Priest Rennyo, the great revivalist abbot of Jōdo Shinshū (Ikkō-shū). Rennyo's retirement initiated the series of events the ended in the formation of Japan's second-largest city. Although Rennyo was looking for isolation a great number of devotees and followers grew around the area, causing the …show more content…
Toyotomi wanted the castle to be mirrored after Oda's, but surpassed it in every way. The castle would be 5 stories tall with 3 extra stories underground with Gold leafing on the sides of the tower was used to impress visitors. The main tower of the castle was built on two raised platforms of landfill and supported by sheer walls of cut rock, the technique used is called Burdock Piling. In 1585 the in Donjon was completed, Toyotomi continued to expand the castle making it even more and more formidable to attackers. The construction of Osaka Castle was completed in 1597 the same year that Hideyoshi Toyotomi died, his son Hideyori inherited his father's castle. Ieyasu Tokugawa understanding the strategic advantage of Osaka Castle attacked Toyotomi in the winter of 1614 starting the Siege of Osaka. Despite the fact that Toyotomi was greatly outnumbered, he and his men managed to fight off Tokugawas 200,000 man army protecting the castle's outer walls. Tokugawa had one of the castle's outer moats filled negating one the castle's main outer defenses. During the summer of 1615 Hideyori began to restore the outer moat, enraging