Nijo-castle at Kyoto

Description

Nijo Castle is a very large castle in Kyoto. It contains a palace, many buildings and large gardens. The building of the current castle was started in the beginning of the 17th century by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is fortified by two rings of long walls and moats. It is the outer ring that is shown here, together with one of its watchtowers. As can be seen from this print, the walls are fairly low, and stretch very far, raising questions about their defensive effectiveness. They still might have fulfilled their tactical purpose however. It is said that the Shogun intended Nijo castle to just slow down an enemy to gain enough time for reinforcements from regions close to Kyoto to arrive. On top of that, if an enemy were to conquer the castle, it would be beneficial if it was not strong enough to be defended effectively for very long. Others speculate that its limited defensibility was intended to boast about invulnerability. In the end, the castle was never attacked, and though fires sometimes destroyed part of it, the castle remained for Tsuchiya Koitsu to design the current woodblock print in 1933, with a recent reprint being shown here.