Little Blue Birdie’s Diary

At the Hiroshima Castle

Dear Diary,

After the Vesak celebrations, here I’m back with my journal, heavy-hearted because of my grandfather’s death. It’s been almost a month, but I still couldn’t get over it. I just can’t believe that he is no more.

Memories of him float in my mind when I write this journal because he is the one who encouraged me to fly around the world and write a travel journal. After his death, while going through his belongings, I found my well-preserved journals in his locker.

After reading my journal entry, his usual question will be “So, where will you fly next week?” Now, many days and weeks have passed, but no one has asked me where I will go next week. That is when I really feel the loss of my grandfather; I miss the encouragement he used to give me. The only thing I can do is to wish that he attains Nibbana!

After Vesak, we flew to Japan to bring you details about more landmarks in that country. I hope you remeber our visits to the Tokyo Tower and other places in Japan when we were here last time. Today we visited the Hiroshima Castle. First, let me tell you about the history of this castle.

Hiroshima Castle, sometimes called Carp Castle is in Hiroshima, and was the home of the daimyo (feudal lord) of Hiroshima. Originally constructed in the 1590s, the castle was destroyed in the atomic bombing in 1945. It was rebuilt in 1958, a replica of the original, and now serves as a museum of Hiroshima’s history prior to World War II.

Mori Terumoto, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Council of Five Elders, established the castle in 1589 at the delta of the Otagawa River. There was no Hiroshima city or town at the time, and the area was called Gokamura, meaning ‘five villages’.

Beginning in 1591, Mori governed nine provinces from this castle, including much of what is now Shimane, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okayama and Hiroshima Prefectures (an administrative area). When construction of the castle began, Gokamura was renamed Hiroshima, as a more impressive name was called for.

‘Hiro’ was taken from oe no Hiromoto, an ancestor of the Mori family, and ‘Shima’ was taken from Fukushima Motonaga who helped Mori Terumoto to choose the castle site. Some accounts state that the name ‘Hiroshima’, which literally means ‘wide island’, comes from the existence of several large islands in the delta of the Otagawa, near the castle site.

Following the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Mori was forced out of the castle, from where he retreated to Hagi in today’s Yamaguchi Prefecture. Fukushima Masanori became the lord of Aki and Bingo provinces (which today comprise the Hiroshima Prefecture), and of Hiroshima Castle.

However, the new Tokugawa shogunate (form of government where the ruler is a dictator) forbade any castle construction without permission; this was part of how the shogunate kept the daimyo from gaining power and overthrowing the shogunate.

When Fukushima repaired the castle following a flood in 1619, he was dispatched to Kawanakajima in today’s Nagano Prefecture and Asano Nagaakira became lord of the castle.

From 1619 until the abolition (doing away with) of the feudal system during the Meiji Restoration (1869), the Asano family members were lords of the Aki and Bingo provinces.

After the Meiji Restoration, the castle came to serve as a military facility, and the Imperial General Head Quarters (GHQ) was based there during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895.

The foundations of several of the GHQ outbuildings, just a few hundred paces from the castle’s main tower, remain today. The castle was destroyed in the atomic bomb blast of August 6, 1945.

The present tower, constructed largely of concrete, was completed in 1958. The castle was originally constructed in wood, pine primarily, and had attached wings to the east and to the south. It had been completed sometime between 1592 and 1599, and had been designated a National Treasure in 1931.

The reconstructed castle features the main tower (tenshu) only, which is made primarily of reinforced concrete. Its five floors stand 26.6 metres above the stone foundation which, in turn, is 12.4 metres high off the ground. However, in recent years, a gate and a yagura (tower) have been re-constructed out of wood using the original methods.

An excellent example of a hirajiro or flatlands (plains) castle, Hiroshima Castle once had three concentric (with the same centre) moats in addition to the Otagawa River to the west (now called the Hongawa), which provided an additional natural barrier.

Bye for now.