P7+Castle+Towns

__Castletowns in Ancient Japan__

By: Brent S, Josh P and AJ B
==Castletowns were large towns that were built around castles when Tokugawa Ieyusu closed Japan’s doors. Castletowns were popular places to live during the Tokugawa period. They were built in Japan, and you could tell who lived there based on what the house looked like. Feudal castles started in 1603, after Tokugawa Ieyusu closed Japan’s doors. Many different types of people were incorporated into castletowns. Samurai houses were different sizes based on how important the samurai was. No matter who you were, the social status affected you. Because Tokugawa Ieyusu closed Japan’s doors, castletowns were popular places to live.==

==Castletowns were popular places to live in the Tokugawa period. Castletowns started when Tokugawa Ieyasu closed Japan’s doors and did not allow any foreign visitors to come to Japan. He used military and negotiations to unify all of the provinces while he was the shogun. This isolated Japan from the rest of the world for over 200 years. During this time, towns were built around the castles that the daimyo and other important people owned. There were moats and walls in different places to make a large defense that would be difficult to attack. The castles were at the very center of the towns, and the castles were the most important part. The most important people were in the middle, like the samurai, and as the towns expanded outward, the people on the outside, like the merchants, were the least important. The rice growing fields were the farthest out, outside the walls. More and more people started to come to the towns that were being built. The merchants, artisans, and traders found out about the castletowns and moved there. Once they arrived, they would set up shop to sell their goods. The people in castletowns had to arrange their houses and shops in many ways to organize the castletowns.==

==Castletowns were built in Japan and their looks told you who lived there. In castletowns the old samurai’s house would become the center of towns. People would build their houses as close as they could (without cramming other houses) to that house which would become the center of the town. The fields of rice would be on the far side of town away from the center building. The castle in the middle of the town would be a rather big house that belonged to a samurai, a daimyo, or a shogun. Castletowns were created when the Japanese government finished the samurai tradition and made there be no more samurai. The old samurai’s houses would be out of use because there were no more samurai, so they became the center of town because they were huge! The actual castle was made out of wood; it was not built with nails. The floors were raised from the ground to keep the house dry in a flood. The roof would be slanted with tiles on it. It was meant to keep water out by having it slide down the roof quickly. Some of the houses had a pretty nice security system. Some had very long paths with many gates, and twists and turns to confuse the intruders. Also some gave the illusion that the castle was right in front of you, but was really far away. There were holes for the other samurai to shoot from, while the intruders ran through the gates. Well now we know that defense is important in castles and also is was important to the social pyramid.==

==Feudal castles started in 1603 when Tokugawa Ieyasu closed Japans doors. It was in this time when castletowns first started. Castles became the centers of government and administration; government officials would meet inside the protected castle doors. The towns, which were inhabited by artisans and merchants, grew up around the castles. The castles were the centers of towns. The people with the higher ranking social status lived closer to the centers of the towns and the people with lower social status lived further away from the centers of the towns. Now you know the placement of people in a castletown, but why is that important?==

==In Castletowns, there were many different types of people who were important. Merchants made money off of other people’s goods. They were the wealthiest social class, but they were barred from the rest of society. Merchants had different types of entertainment like wrestling, gambling, and the kabuki theater. Merchants sold many different goods to the people that lived there. Artisans are another important rank. Artisans produced goods for the need of the castle samurai. There were Swordsmiths, Armorsmiths, Carpenters, Sawyers, and Roofers. The Sawyers were the people that would saw things with such precision and accuracy that the Carpenters could put them together without nails. The Carpenters were the people that put the things that they Sawyers had made together into a structure. The Roofers were the people that put roofs onto the structures that the carpenters made. Traders are another important social rank. During the Tokugawa period, Japan was isolated from the rest of the world and traders from other countries were not allowed to come to trade. Japanese traders traded the goods that many consumers would buy and they also shipped manufactured items. They traded many goods from all over Japan and had a variety of different items that they would sell and trade. The merchants, traders, and artisans also sometimes sold things to the samurai and constructed their houses.==

==Some of the castles in the castletowns were kind of small. The rank of the samurai determined the size of his house. If you were a low ranking samurai then your house would be small, or average to everybody else’s homes, but if you were a high ranking samurai, like a shogun or daimyo, your house would be huge with many large rooms and gardens. Even the lowest ranking samurai was the master of his house. His children and wife would be ordered to always show respect to him. Samurai’s did not spend a lot of time in their house. In an average or lower ranking samurai’s house there would be some tables, pillows and chests (with other things too, but those were the most common items). Some of the samurai’s houses had floors made so that whenever you stepped on them, they would make a noise waking people up and sending guards after the intruder. But not just the way castletowns were created are important, the social status was to.==

==The social status in ancient Japan affected you no matter what your social status was. Samurai had the highest social status. The samurai followed the Bushido - “The Way of the Warrior ": Strict code of honor & total loyalty, more important than fame or money, emphasized simplicity, always prepared to die for master. The highest ranking samurai was the shogun, he rules all samurai. The second highest ranking samurai is the daimyo, and they ruled the provinces form the castles in the centers of the castletowns. Only samurai were allowed in the castles. The architectural design of the castles funneled the enemies into a bottleneck trap. The samurai’s homes were the closest to the castles in according to rank. Samurai helped the daimyo collect taxes (rice payments) and enforce laws. Artisans had the second highest social status. The artisans produced goods needed by the samurai; they included sword smiths, armor smiths, carpenters, sawyers, and roofers. Their homes are further away from the center of castletowns. Merchants had the lowest social status but were the wealthiest. The merchant homes were the furthest away from the centers of castletowns. They were not allowed to be samurai and they had their own separate forms of entertainment including wrestling, gambling, and Kabuki Theater.==

==Castletowns are so much more than just a town built around a castle. Castletowns show the social structure; by having the most important people closer to the castle and having the less important people live farther away from it. It is also interesting how castletowns were created by making there be no more samurai. Also castletowns show us very smart ways of planning defense, by making illusions, traps and shooters. Castletowns are important for those reasons and many more.==

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__Citations:__

 * ==Deal, William E. __Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan__. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 2006. Print.==
 * ==Nardo, Don. __Traditional Japan__. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1995. Print.==
 * ==Schomp, Virginia. __Japan in the Days of the Samurai__. New York: Benchmark Books/M. Cavendish, c2002. Print.==