Nagoya Castle.

From Fushimi station, we reached the Kamimaezu station via Tsurumai line and changed to  Meijo Subway Line to reach the Shiyakusho Station. While walking from the station we saw the Nagoya City hall.

Nagoya City Hall

Nagoya city hall.

It was built in 1933 and miraculously survived the wartime bombing of the city, which destroyed nearby Nagoya Castle.The building is a mix of Japanese and western styles and includes the imperial symbol at the top of its roof. The tower (pictured below) has 12 floors.
The complex contains many of the administrative offices of Nagoya city including the Mayor's office, the Health and Welfare Bureau, the Fire Department, the Board of Education Office and the Office of Tourist Development.

We reached to the castle's east gate in three minutes. We decided to have our lunch before entering the castle. We found a small park near to the castle compound and ate our food that we had with us. The park seems like not a popular one. Apart from all other parks that I had seen in Japan till now, this park is not so well managed. There were nobody else in the park than us and to kids practicing their first lessons of cycle riding from their parents.

After finishing our lunch, we reached the entrance of the castle from there we bought our entrance tickets.

Entrance ticket of the castle.

Flower in the garden.

 There was a beautiful garden on one side of the path towards the castle. We walked through the garden or 20 minutes.Also we saw some small drama played at one side of the wide path. We stayed to watch it for some time. But I couldn't understand what they are saying. Two of them were dressed like warriors and from their action I got the idea that one of them is teaching the other man how to use the sword for fight.

Drama played inside the castle compound.

Statue of Kato Kiyomasa inside the castle area.

Nagoya Castle - History

Nagoya Castle was constructed on the orders of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA in order to secure an important position on the Tokaido road and to ward off attacks from the direction of Osaka. Construction was completed in 1612, and the castle is typical of those built on flatlands. Until the Meiji Restoration, Nagoya Castle flourished as the castle in which the Owari lineage of the Tokugawa family, the foremost of the family’s three lineages, resided. In May 1945, during the air raids on Nagoya in the Second World War, most of the buildings including the main and small dungeons, and the Hommaru Palace, were burned down. Fortunately, however, three corner towers, three gates, and most of the paintings on the sliding doors and walls in the Hommaru Palace survived the fire, and have been handed down as Important Cultural Assets.

Nagoya Castle.

The castle has seven floors with greenish roof . There is an observation deck at the last floor. There is pair of stairs to reach there - one or climbing up and other for getting down.

All the floors are exhibited with various things of historical importance for the Nagoya Castle.Walking through all the floors, we can learn the entire history of the castle.

The first floor has a golden dolphin,  replica of the Ogonsui Well etc.

Remains of gold water well.

Kinshachi.

 Kinshachi

The best-known items associated with the Nagoya Castle are the golden dolphins, or kinshachi. It is said that the first dolphins (shachi) to adorn the main ridge of castle roofs, added when the basic construction of the castle was completed, appeared in the Muromachi Era (1334-1400) as symbol of the feudal lord’s authority. Although Nagoya’s golden dolphins shared the fate of the dungeon, being consumed by flames in the Second World War, they reappeared along with a rebuilt dungeon, in 1959, to the delight of the people of Nagoya.

 The next floor exhibits some important cultural assets that used to decorate the Hommaru Palace as well as swords and their accessories that were privately endowed.

Swords.

There were so many paintings exhibited there. Tigers, wild cats, pheasants, peacocks, cherry blossom etc. were among them. They were painted on the Japanese style sliding wooden walls.

 The castle town has been reproduced in the hall of next floor along with the architectural details. There were reproduced structures of various Japanese houses found here. Also  the structure of various rooms inside the castle and the life of lord and his town people are exhibited.  Armor, helmets, swords, and harquebus from the Nagoya Castle collection are displayed in another floor.

The castle area structure.

Hommaru palace model

Structure of Nagoya castle .

 The next floor have a seat on a full-scale replica of the Golden Dolphin and we can take photographs sitting there. We can also try pulling a rope tied to a stone for the Stone Wall. There are three people pulling big rocks which has been used for the construction of the castle.

People pulling the rock.

At last we reached the Donjon observation deck  from which we can view the Nagoya Castle grounds and outer lying areas including downtown Nagoya unobstructed by any high-rise downtown buildings. 

View from the Donjon observation deck.

Also there are small shopping centres too with a lot of unique things. A very basic peculiarity of the shops of Japan that I noticed is the things available at shops associated one place will not be available anywhere else.
 
On our way back, we spend some time  in the famous Ninomaru Garden of Nagoya Castle which is situated near the east gate.It is a traditional Japanese garden.

Ninomaru Garden.

The Ninomaru Garden was laid out between 1615-1623 along with the Ninomaru Palace. The garden was transformed into a strolling garden with grass lawns and dry stone gardens in the early 18th century.