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Osaka Castle was constructed in 1585 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He used it as his base to unify Japan after many years of war. The huge castle took two years to build, with a crew of 20,000 to 30,000 working daily. The stone walls for the main, secondary and tertiary enclosures measure about 12 km in length. One of the huge boulders for the main enclosure wall is 5.8 m tall and 14 m wide (it is called
tako-ishi
). The castle was burned in 1615 when the Toyotomi family was overthrown. It was rebuilt, but the main tower was destroyed by fire in 1665, and most of the remaining buildings burned to the ground in 1868. The present main tower was reconstructed in 1931 by the city of Osaka, using reinforced concrete.
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Osaka Castle's largest boulder, called
tako-ishi
, is at the Sakura-mon Gate. Historical records say that it was brought from Inujima by a crew from the Ikeda Domain (present-day Okayama Prefecture).
(Photo by Ogawa Hiroyuki)
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