Hanzomon is one of the gates of the Royal Palace, located right at the west of the palace. If you are interested in Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867), I recommend you to visit this gate.
The current Royal Palace used to be “Edo castle”, the castle of Tokugawa family before Meiji restoration. It was the largest and mightest castle in Japan’ s history. The castle was located amid Edo city (the largest city in the world at that time) to use countless houses and buildings as blockade . The roads to Edo castle were like labyrinth . Almost all gates of the castle were very large and guarded by plenty of samurai soldiers. But, in case enemies came into the castle in spite of these defenses, Tokugawa families were to escape from the castle through Hanzomon gate. That is why this gate is so small and the path to this gate across the moat is so narrow, and the road from this gate to the west is exceptionally straight.
コメント