2015年4月20日月曜日

The imperial palace

Current Japanse imperial palace is located in Tokyo, and what is interesting is that the site in which the palace has been set had been used as a military castle by previous Japanese administrator during Edo period. Edo period started in 1603 and ended in 1868, and the castle has been called Edo-jou or Edo castle.  That is to say, two famous Japanese historical places are contained in on place, in other words, Edo castle and The Imperial Palace mean one same place.



Although public people surely cannot enter inside of the palace, its external appearance -a castle towering in the pond surrounding it as if an island- is superb. Many people jog around the palace, and it has been familiar scene of Tokyo.

During Edo period, Edo castle had been used as a headquarters of military government, Edo Bakuhu, ruled by Samurai class. After that, imperial government usurp the power from military government through a war which is like an intermediate form between revolution and military coup. 

In the war, Edo castle was bloodlessly surrendered to the new government from Edo Bakufu. Such miracle was the event that it has been used as a theme for various form of drama for years. Involvement of many historically famous figures is another reason of its popularity. 

Its main structure, a deluxe five-story tower that is called 'Tenshukaku', however, was burned down by a fire in 1657. Although some reconstruction plans were proposed, they weren't realized because a plan of such a huge tower had already become out of date, and reconstruction of the city area was given priority.
Eventually, a small tower called  'Fujimi-Yagura' was designated to take the place of the main structure 'Tenshukaku.' By the way, Fujimi means looking Mount Fuji. The place where Tenshukaku was standing on has been exhibiting only its basement since then.

The Basement of Tenshukaku

Until the end of the WWII, Japanese emperor had been holding an absolute power, and the imperial palace was the icon of its entity. Japanese citizens had never heard their imperial's voice until he declared the end of the war through a radio broadcasting.
This broadcasting was not accomplished so easily because a part of army rebelled against its implementation, occupying the imperial palace. The army coup, of course, ended up in failure and its leaders committed suicide as the disk recording imperial's voice was not sought out.

Thus the Imperial's announcement was finally broadcasted. And the footage in which citizens heard it at the park in front of the imperial palace, falling on their knees, has repeatedly been on-aired in many documentary TV programs.

While general people living before the end of the WWII were not able to look even the photograph of the Imperial, citizens living in today can have a chance for visiting the imperial palace including its main shrine in special occasions designated by the relevant authority, the Imperial Household Department.


the main shrine of Imperial Palace

The fact that Imperial palace and Edo castle mean same place may not be known even by many Japanese except for those living in Tokyo, because it rarely is mentioned in Newspapers or TV programs and modern history doesn't take so much time in history classes at high school level.

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