Osaka Castle (October 2003)

Osaka Castle was built by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in the sixteenth century. After Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, the castle passed to his son, Hideyori Toyotomi. In the summer war of Osaka (1615), Ieyasu Tokugawa, formerly an ally of Hideyoshi, conquered Osaka Castle after a previous unsuccessful attempt. He built a new, even bigger castle on the ruins of the old; the walls and some of the smaller buildings still standing today date back to that time. The main tower was destroyed by fire in 1665 and 1868; after a reconstruction in 1931 it was damaged again during a bombing raid in WW II. (Cameras used: Canon EOS 300 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10).