OSAKA AS PROTOTYPICAL CASTLE TOWN: An enquiry into the Evolution of the Plan of Stage 3 Osaka 1598

摘要

On the assassination of Oda Nobunaga in 1576, Toyotomi Hideyoshi assumed power and continued the process of national unification which was completed by Tokugawa leyasu in 1600 at the Battle of Sekigahara. In the short space of 22 years until his death in 1598, Hideyoshi's substantive unification of the country made possible daring innovations in the siting of castles and the accompanying towns which grew from the newly emerging political and social order. The towns built by him, and the principles used became a reference point for daimyo who were replacing obsolete castles and support settlements with towns appropriate to the new era. Beginning with Nagahama on Lake Biwa, Hideyoshi departed from the received wisdom of his predecessor and built his. castle on a hill with the town laid out on the plain between fortress and its enclosing fortifications and the lake. The economic function of the town was promoted and the strategic location utilised to maximise trade and commercial growth. It was to be the first in a series of essays in urban planning which ushered in the new age. In all, he was responsible for the development of some nine large scale foundations which were to change the course of Japanese urban development. In technical terms, the cities constructed under Hideyoshi's initiatives between 1583 and 1586, all demonstrated strong similarities. All showed strong tendencies to integrate the castle and town into one spatial organisation with reduced vertical separation of elements, and to differentiate between internal functions and social classes. Of these foundations, the most influential was to be his capital on the site of the first capital on the Chinese model, Naniwa no miya. Osaka, as Naniwa no miya came to be known, was the pre-eminent city in Japan at Hideyoshi's death in 1598. As it evolved between 1583 and 1600, its influence in the years following Sekigahara determined the direction in which the following government of Tokugawa leyasu was to follow. Osaka stood as a prototype for the numerous new cities which were required as the system of Tokugawa government, the Bakuhan Taisei evolved. Osaka had been built using labour and resources provided by Hideyoshi's daimyo, and provided readymade solutions to the physical problems posed by the social and economic policies initiated by Hideyoshi and continued by leyasu. The families and retainers of the daimyo had been required to live there as hostages in substantial establishments provided from domain funds. The same daimyo had also contributed to the reconstruction of Kyoto and to Hideyoshi's former seat of government, the Jurakudai Castle. These feudal lords formed Hideyoshi's court there and had also provided for the enforced residence of their families at the centre of Kyoto in the shadow of the castle during the years from 1586 to 1595. This long period of familiarity with the traditions and structure of the Emperor's capital provided a reference point for a comparison with Osaka- which exposed the eccentricities of its plan when compared to the classical model so that in literary terms, Kyoto appears to have, retained a degree of long-term influence lost by Osaka following its systematic and thorough destruction in 1615. However, at the critical period in the years after 1600, it was Osaka which provided the model for the new domain capitals of the new age.