Odawara Castle Travel Guide
Today I will talk about one such fortress
which has occupied an essential place in the history of Japan and very
important as a tourist destination at present.it is the seventh-largest castle of
Japan. It is Odawara Castle (小田原城, Odawarajō)
Odawara Castle
The castle is easily
accessible from Tokyo and there are two more interesting museums like the
Tokiwagi Gate SAMURAI Museum and the NINJA Museum beside the Main Castle
Museum.
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| Odawara Castle Garden |
Castle has a long history of events that need to be discussed briefly. Then the trip will become more exciting. The Omori dynasty built the fort during the Muromachi period and ruled for some time. The castle is said to have been built in the mid-15th century and is one of the most significant defensive forts near the Tokyo area.
Later, most probably at the end of the fifteenth century, Hojo Soun conquered the region and his descendants ruled for the next hundred years. During this period the Hojo dynasty faced three major attacks, the last of that was the invasion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, which was the main reason for the decline of the dynasty.
Because of the fear of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attack, Hojo takes the castle's defense to another level which is popularly known as Sogamae. Due to the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, the fort was already a geographically convenient place, but apart from that, there was a 9 km long well-designed moat and embankment all around. But despite doing so much, they had to accept the defeat.
Later, Okubo Tadayo took
over as Lord of the Castle and reconstructed the castle in a modern form.
The history of the fort goes on with a few more incidents but the most notable of these is that the abandoned castle, imperial villa, and other buildings were destroyed for the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and thus the whole memory of the Edo period’s Odawara castle was lost. Then the corner tower rebuilt in 1934 and finally in 1960 the much-awaited Castle Tower was completed and in recent years work on all the other parts like the Tokiwa Kimon, the Copper Gate, and Mademon have been completed.
Odawara Castle Honmaru(inner citadel) had two main entrances, the Tokiwa wooden gate, and the Tetsumon gate. Tokiwa Kimon was the main gate of the main perimeter and was an important defense base that was large and more solid than the other gates.
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| Tokiwa wooden gate |
Currently, the symbol of Odawara city is the main tower of Odawara Castle. The exterior of the main tower was renovated in the 1960s using various Edo period paintings and models. The inside of this five-story castle, however, is now used as a museum. On the first to fourth floors, has displayed materials such as armor, swords, various ancient documents, drawings, and materials related to samurai culture to know the history of Odawara castle's feudal history in detail.
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| Castle Tower Museum |
But one of the attractions of the Castle is the Castle Watch Tower, now also known as the Observatory Desk, located at an altitude of 60 meters above sea level. From here you can get a beautiful panoramic view of the surroundings. You can see the high walls like surrounding mountains, the city view, the Sagami Bay, and even on a sunny day you can clearly see the Boso Peninsula.
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| Observatory Desk |
In the beginning, I mentioned one of the most notable spots in this castle is the castle garden. In many pictures, I have seen the garden area, the path outside the main gate, and the surrounding of the main castle tower look so gorgeous during the springtime when sakura blooms.
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| photo courtesy - Σ64 |
But I had no idea that even in the rainy season garden looks so beautiful. Across the slopes of the castle are filled with colorful blue-white-pink hydrangea flowers. Not only that, the blooming Irises across the front field look excellent. Throughout the year, some flowers bloom here in this garden and in the nearby pond.
The decoration of the copper plate, which is the source of the name, is the Cooper Gate, restored in 1997, which is the main gate from Umaya Kuruwa to Ninomaru, which is surrounded by earthen walls. Even inside the copper gate building special exhibitions holds on every Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays.
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| Cooper Gate |
There are various arrangements to enjoy the
whole day with the family. In addition to the museum, there is a children's
amusement park for the little ones or an armor dressing experience in ninja or
samurai style. Many events in the city like Odawara Sakura Festival, Odawara
Hojo Godai Festival or Odawara Lantern Summer Festival are centered around this
castle. At a time like this one can actually enjoy a different beauty of this
castle.
How to go
Odawara castle is just a two-minute walk from Odawara Station. There are many options to visit this castle located very close to Tokyo.
Train route: Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen will reach Odawara in just 42 minutes from Tokyo.
Also, Romanscar from Shinjuku station or Odakyu Limited Express from Tokyo station will arrive in an hour.
And those who want to do a budget tour can also take the local on the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku Station or Tokyo Station. In that case, the journey will be between 1.30 to 2 hours.
If you are coming from Osaka, it is very easy to reach Odawara station in two and a half hours from Shin Osaka Station by Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen.
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