| The Edo Castle (Edojyou) originated from its construction on 1457 by
Dokan Ota, the minister of the Daimyo Sadamasa Uesugi. It is thought
that this Edojyou corresponded to the former inner circle (Kyu-Honmaru) of
the present Imperial Palace and its surroundings, and that this size was
no more than one tenth of the Edojyou in the Edo era. As it is seen in the
famous tanka (a Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables) above, Doukan was
proud of this castle, staying inside which one can command all four views
of Mt. Fuji, the Musasino Plain, the Sumida river, and Mt. Tsukuba. On
1524, the castle went to the hands of Naokage and Tsunakage Toyama, the
followers of Daimyo Ujitsuna Hojyo, and after the Houjyou was ruined,
Ieyasu Tokugawa entered in the castle on 1590. |
