Osaka

Osaka

Guess who took a shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka on a business trip for 4 days?

And guess who got to try Osaka takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and kushikatsu at Dotonbori?

And guess who got to trek around Osaka Castle grounds?! :D

I’m so lucky. ;___;

Since I’m a nerd for Japanese history – or more specifically, the Sengoku period – I had a blast in Osaka, visiting Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s Osaka Castle (it’s more touristy than I pictured it, but I learned a ton and got me some great souvenirs anyways), getting to see letters written by Nobunaga Oda (couldn’t read them, but the calligraphy is unbelievably intricate), and also checking out the beautiful paintings depicting the Osaka Summer Campaign.

I learned that Osaka Castle was originally built in 1583 under Toyotomi, but was burnt down during the Osaka Summer Campaign in 1615. It was rebuilt from 1620 – 1629 under the Tokugawa Shogunate, and then later on restored under the Meiji Restoration in 1868… So yeah, it’s been built and rebuilt a bunch of times.

But a lot of the Toyotomi spirit was still intact even after Tokugawa had rebuilt it. And it was really interesting to see the mystery that remained in the castle years later. Topics such as…

“An old stone wall was discovered buried in an area 45 meters south of the present castle.”
“A mysterious escape hole discovered during investigations on the stone walls of the South Outer Moat.”
“Investigation of the legendary Golden well. (1959)”

It was also rumored that Toyotomi (who loved gold) tossed some gold in the bottom of one of his wells, but no one has ever found it, so I can’t say if it ever happened or not.

And how Tako-ishi (Octopus Stone) were used to construct an outer layer of protection is still a mystery to me. Those things are HUGE and weigh TONS!

Speaking of the Sengoku Jidai, Masamune Date happens to be my favorite of the feudal lords (daimyou), because his background story is just so cool. In his childhood, he lost his right eye to sickness, presumably, and in Osaka Castle, there was a little tidbit about him saying that he was super touchy about his lost eye, making whoever did his portrait paint it in. He was nicknamed “The One-Eyed Dragon” (how cool is that?!).

I would love to take a trip to Masamune’s stomping grounds, Sendai, sometime during my time here, but we’ll see about that. It’s kind of out-of-the-way (about a 5 hour trip, give or take), and transportation out here ain’t cheap.

(Also, speaking of transportation… On a more personal note, I moved from Umegaoka, Tokyo to Yachiyo, Chiba yesterday!)