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Castles in Old Photos and Ukiyo-e Prints
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About this collection
Old photographs of castles, mostly from Meiji-era photo albums, along with late Edo woodblock prints. Castles such as Osaka, Himeji, Nagoya, Matsue, Hikone and Kanazawa appear with their keeps and stone walls, alongside views of the towns below. In the Meiji era, some castles faced a choice: keep them or tear them down.
Keeps Saved from Demolition
In 1875, the buildings of "Matsue Castle" were put up for sale, and even the keep was priced at 180 yen. Local people who could not bear to lose it paid the same sum to buy it back, and the keep survived. In 1879, it was decided to preserve "Himeji Castle (White Heron Castle)" too.
Before the Keep Burned, Before It Was Built
"Nagoya Castle, Owari" shows the keep before it burned in the air raids of 1945. "Osaka Castle," from 1896, shows the castle before today's keep was built in 1931. The Tokugawa-era keep had burned after a lightning strike and had not been rebuilt since.
A Castle Town and a Lake View
The 1863 print "Kameyama on the Tokaido" comes from a series on the shogun Tokugawa Iemochi's journey to Kyoto, and shows the post town below Kameyama Castle. "Lake Biwa from Hikone Castle," from a 1900 photo album, looks out toward the lake from the castle's high ground.
Based on the National Diet Library's catalog records and our notes on each image.Published
Old photos: 22 · Woodblock prints: 4
