Ōte-mon gate of Edo Castle

 There are three entrances of The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. One of them is the gate. It is the nearest one from Tōkyō station so most people may enter from there. It was the gate, called Ōte-mon gate, of the third enclosure of Edo castle, and the gate was built in 1629.

 About the general gates of Edo castle at that time, a square was built by stone walls or earthen rampart walls and it has two gates. One is a one-story gate, called Kōrai-mon gate, at the entrance outside, and one is a turreted passageway, called Watari-Yagura-mon, at the entrance inside. These are called box-shaped gate (masugata-mon).When enemy soldiers had broken through the gates outside, they were in the square. Then, defebding soldiers can attack them from shooting holes in the walls and the turreted passageway on the second floor. So they will be annihilated because it is narrow and they have no space. But actually, there were no battles at Edo castle.

 About the current Ōte-mon gate, there is a moat so we can cross the bridge. Currently, the bridge is made up of an earth-paved bridge but it was wooden bridge before the Great Kantō Earthquake. When we cross the bridge, there is a one-story gate (Kōrai-mon gate), and when we pass the gate, there is a square, and there is a turreted passageway (Watari-Yagura-mon) on the right.

 At box-shaped gate, a one-story gate was called Kōrai-mon gate, and a turreted passageway was called Watari-Yagura-mon or Yagura-mon.

 “Kōrai” is the name of dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula from 918 to 1392. During Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s army’s invasion of Korea which insted from 1592 to 1598, it was the newest gate they constrncted. When Japanese army landed on the Korean peninsula, they built a Japanese style castle along the south coast. People can tell : it is a Japanese castle by the design of the gate. Although it has a Korean name, it was not a Korean style gate. It was invented by Japanese so it was Japanese style gate.

 A turreted passageway has a gate at the first floor and a turret at second floor. It was as strong as the castle gate. When the enemy approached, it was able to monitor the movement of the enemy from the turret at the second floor, and their soldiers can attack them from the shooting holes at second floor. Just before their enemies could reach them, the defenders could easily repel them by dropping stones from the stone-dropping window.

 About the current the turreted passageway of Ōte-mon gate, it was rebuilt after World War II, so I can’t find anything like shooting holes or stone-dropping window. Some things may look like them, but I'm not sure.

 There is a dolphin-like object (called shachi or shachihoko) in the square. It has the head of a dragon and the body of a fish. This is an imaginary spirit fish. In a castle, it is usually located on the top of a castle tower (called tenshu). Beyond that, it is used at an important turret of corner or a turreted passageway, and it was meaning an important building in the castle.

 About the one at Ōte-mon gate, it was located on the top of the turreted passageway of the gate that was burned in World War II in April of 1945. Chinese characters were carved on the head of the object and they means “In 1657”, so it suggests that the object was made after the gate was burned by the Great fire in 1657.

 When we look at the wall of the gate from the square, we can find some shooting holes (called sama). They are for attacking an enemy outside the gate or an enemy in the square with arrows or guns. But there were actually no battles at Edo castle, and many of its buildings were lost in a great fire.