LUÍS FRÓIS, SJ, ON VISITING GIFU CASTLE
The open field of battle is the arena where every samurai prefers to demonstrate his skills, but, like it or not, the majority of actions in which you take part will probably involve a fortified place. This provides new challenges and calls for an entirely different set of skills, but it also allows for the acquisition of considerable glory in an often-difficult situation.
Castles, which are fantastic creations of white wood and blue tiles, ornamented with gold, soar above great stone walls like exquisitely decorated samurai helmets. Yet castles were not always like this. For years most castles were built entirely from wood, producing temporary and flimsy structures. These early yamashiro (mountain castles) consisted of a complex of interlocking defensive spaces, carved from the tops of adjacent hills and mountains, with a lord’s living quarters positioned in a valley. Castle walls were the existing wooded hillsides, while their towers were built from the wood of trees removed both to provide building space and to ensure a clear field of view. As time went by, lords created numerous distant mountain-top outposts that were controlled from one central castle; and it was not long before certain imaginative lords developed the most distinctive feature of our Japanese castles: the massive stone bases on which a more elaborate superstructure can sit. Thousands of workmen clear the vegetation from a hillside, then follow a precise geometric pattern to clad the slopes in stone. As well as being a defensive feature, the solidity of the base also provides good protection from earthquakes. No mortar is used in the building of the substructure, and at first sight it looks as if the stones of the walls have been placed haphazardly, but in fact they are carefully arranged with their smaller sides outwards and their larger sides inwards, resulting in a fine concave curve. Kumamoto Castle, the seat of Lord Kato Kiyomasa, provides an excellent example of this. Above these bases may be seen another form of wall, which is a low construction of plaster over a wood and rope core that runs along the length of the stone base defence. These walls are tiled as a protection against rain, and are pierced with loopholes for guns and bows. Every castle has several gateways, with the gatehouses hung with doors of heavy timber on massive iron hinges, reinforced with iron plates and spikes.
The keep of Nagoya Castle – one of the finest examples of the magnificent fortifications that grace the landscape of Japan – acts as a defensive and administrative centre for the domains of a daimyo.
The earlier model of a lord’s living quarters lying in a valley connected to a lookout tower on a nearby hill has long since been replaced by one massive complex, where the hill itself has disappeared under a maze of intersecting stone bases, towers, walkways, parapets and gatehouses, crowned by a splendid many-floored keep that allows a commanding view of the lord’s territory and provides a crucial symbol of his power. More mundanely, it also provides a solid last-ditch refuge in times of war, should every other tower and courtyard of the castle have fallen to an enemy. This is precisely the situation faced by those misguided rebels at Osaka.
Regardless of its military function, the keep of a modern castle is also a truly beautiful sight. The windows, roofs and gables are arranged in subtle and intricate patterns, with the roofs almost always tiled – the topmost ridge decorated with ornaments in the shape of fish as charms against evil spirits and fire. The external colour of keeps is usually white, but exceptions are the so-called ‘black castles’, such as Kumamoto, Matsue and Okayama. Here the darker predominant colour comes from the black wood, which is more pervasive than the surrounding white plaster. The family crest of the lord carved on the apex of the gable ends is the only other decoration. A Japanese castle is therefore both a fortress and a thing of great beauty.
The outer wall and moat of Osaka Castle, built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1586.
How Castles Fail – Ten Things Every Castle Owner Should Know
Let us look at how these beautiful castles are defended. Unfortunately many incorrect preconceptions still exist, which I shall deal with here:
1 Castles are still made mostly out of wood
Centuries ago castles were entirely wooden structures, but even today, with the development of stone bases, enough of a castle is built from wood to make fire your greatest enemy. Don’t let a lazy cook undo the work of decades. Fire precautions should always be taken and vigilance maintained at all times.
2 Castle sites are not all the same
Location, location, location! Is your castle a yamashiro (built on a hill) or a hirajiro (built on a plain)? Does it defend a port or an estuary? Is it accessed by land or by sea, along narrow mountain paths or across rice fields? All these are important factors that must be taken into consideration when defending or attacking a fortified place.
3 Sloping stone walls are better than sheer ones
Japanese castle walls slope quite dramatically, but this does not stop them being relatively easy to climb; so why aren’t they built vertically like the Great Wall of China? First, because they are not structurally like Chinese walls: most Japanese stone walls enclose a solid mound of earth, usually sculpted from a mountain, so they naturally slope. Second, because this curved base helps reduce the effects of earthquakes on the structure. If you look at the best-constructed walls, of which, as I have already mentioned, Kumamoto Castle has very good examples, you will notice that even though the fortifications slope they also have quite smooth surfaces, making them tougher to climb. Even if your enemy manages to surmount the stone bases, it doesn’t mean that he will be able to enter the keep or the towers. Inside them you will have trapdoors through which you can shoot and drop rocks. Protruding spikes will also hinder an attacker.
4 Castles are not waterproof
The short vertical walls located above the massive stone bases are made of rammed earth and clay. They are plastered and then whitewashed. On top of them runs a roof of shingles or tiles. Neglect the upkeep of this system and one day after heavy rain you will have a soggy mess to clear up. Maintaining the clay mixture on top of the wood is time-consuming and labour-intensive, but ignore it at your peril. Set up a maintenance rota among your farmers so they have something to do on a slack day. If they are needed in the rice fields, get their wives and children to do it.
5 Samurai use cannon
Once we didn’t – but we do now. We couldn’t have defeated the rebels in the winter campaign of Osaka last year had we not been able to lob a 16-pound shot into the keep, forcing their side to the negotiating table (and smashing the tea cabinet of Toyotomi Hideyori’s mother). I may add that the use of cannon is a very recent trend in Japanese warfare. Until we bought English artillery, nothing we had could fire a cannonball more than about half a mile. Those Portuguese breech-loaders were hopeless; all the force leaked out round the chamber. Now we have muzzle-loading iron cannon that can hit the keep of Osaka Castle from a safe distance.
6 Some samurai betray castles
How sad this is, but, suppose it is you besieging a castle – if you have a particular defender’s wife held hostage and make it clear that she will be crucified in sight of the castle unless he sets fire to the keep, I think he may just be persuaded to abandon several centuries of samurai tradition. This could of course happen to you, so always be on your guard against treason. Have your most trusted samurai posted on the towers just to look out for arrow-letters. These are shot into a castle to seduce weak spirits with offers of riches if they betray you – such letters should be burned immediately. Do not ever open them.
7 You cannot manage without a well
Some people think you can, and collect only rainwater. Try it one day; it’s amazing how quickly those storage jars get depleted. Many sieges have ended shortly after the besiegers cut off the water supply. A castle that is dependent upon a nearby stream being piped in, or worst of all relies on water (other than rainfall) being carried up a hill, will not hold out for long. Remember the siege of Chokoji in 1570, where all that Shibata Katsuie had was water stored in jars. In the end he smashed the jars and led his samurai out in a daring, desperate charge.
8 There is not room in your castle for everyone
On this point you will have to be very strict. The more people you pack into the castle, the less food there is to go round: a careful balance must always be struck between augmenting your defensive numbers and not acquiring many useless mouths to feed. It is remarkable, however, how useful some people can be, and peasants don’t require much food anyway. Women will fight too, if necessary, as they did during the unusual incident at the siege of Omori Castle in 1600. There the noble samurai of Otani Yoshitsugu found themselves bombarded by stones flung out of the castle from catapults operated by female crews. One samurai was killed. Women and girls can also be set to work casting bullets, repairing damaged armour and of course preparing severed heads for inspection. Even old men can lift quite heavy loads, so set them to work carrying boxes of arrows, bullets and stones up on to the parapets.
9 Your castle will be relieved one day … won’t it?
It may – one day. Let us look at the nightmare situation of not being relieved, such as befell Kikkawa Tsuneie at the siege of Tottori Castle in 1581. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had surrounded the mountain on which the castle was built and erected watchtowers, from which sharpshooters cut down anyone who tried to flee. Kikkawa Tsuneie held out for an amazing 200 days, during which his garrison ate dead horses and even the bodies of deceased comrades. Kato Kiyomasa thought that his end had likewise come in 1593, when he defended Ulsan Castle in Korea for a long and painful time. Eventually he saw flocks of scavenging birds descending on the Chinese siege lines and knew that a Japanese army had arrived. The experience taught him many lessons, and within the vast courtyards of his old castle at Kumamoto there now grow nut trees to provide food in times of siege. Furthermore, all the mats in the building are stuffed not with rice straw as is usual but with dried vegetables, so that a desperate garrison could even eat the floor.
This picture shows the awful conditions that developed during the long siege of Tottori Castle in 1581. The starving defenders are eating a dead horse, and will very soon start eating each other.
10 You should worry about ninja
Your castle will not stand for long if you are assassinated. Remember my earlier comments about these despicable villains called ninja and be on your guard.
How to Attack Castles
So much for defending castles; some day you will be called upon to attack one, and they are by no means impregnable. In time even Osaka will fall. All it takes is a little cunning and a lot of bravery, so let us first look at the siegework techniques that are currently employed.
1 Bribery
Why waste valuable samurai when you can buy surrender? It is amazing how often an enemy commander can be persuaded to surrender his castle in return for a handsome bribe of money, lands and titles. If you also threaten to crucify his captured wife, this will concentrate his mind most admirably.
2 Taking By Storm – Everyone’s Favourite
When it comes to covering yourself in samurai glory, there is no substitute for an out-and-out assault. Forget all I have just written about castle walls being difficult to climb and just charge. Spears can be awkward in this situation, so hand yours to a personal attendant and clamber up the wall with your sword and dagger. One of those newfangled pistols could also be very useful here. The best tactic to adopt is to order your ashigaru arquebus squads to maintain a continuous rotating volley of fire. This will make the defenders keep their heads down while you and your brave comrades safely cross over the parapet. This was tried first of all by Oda Nobunaga at Muraki in 1564, and was a great success. The archers will augment the process by delivering precisely aimed arrows towards the weapon slits on the castle walls. The best demonstration of this technique was during the first invasion of Korea, where our arquebus troops cleared the walls of Korean defenders at Busan and Jinju.
Here we see a spirited attack on a castle wall using spears. The samurai have scaled the massive stone base and are breaking through a short plastered wall pierced with gunports.
3 Cannon, Crossbows and Catapults
Any technique whereby missiles may be launched is very useful, but apart from long-range European cannon, large missile weapons such as catapults are more useful for defence than for attack. Siege crossbows were much used in the olden days, but less so now because they are cumbersome and need specialist operators. Siege engines (like the towers and ladders that the Chinese use) are generally also cumbersome, and practical only when a castle is built on a flat plain. As most Japanese castles make use of high ground in some form, they are less susceptible to this kind of attack. The Dutch have recently introduced us to specialized cannon called mortars. They are currently being tested and are very promising because they lob an exploding shell over a castle wall on a high trajectory, causing a greater impact.
4 Exploding Cows and Other Fiendish Chinese Devices
As I mentioned, during the war in Korea our brave samurai were subjected to a wide variety of Chinese siege weapons, but mobile scaling ladders are not the end of the story – far from it! Those clever Chinese have a vast repertoire of bizarre devices in their armoury. Just in case we ever have to fight them again, here are a few details about the Chinese expertise in creating fire. For example, have you ever heard of exploding cows? By this I don’t just mean causing cows to stampede by fixing burning brands to their horns (though this can be very effective, as shown by Minamoto Yoshinaka at the battle of Kurikara in 1183 and Hojo Soun at Odawara in 1495). No, rather I refer to the use of one or two animals as delivery systems for explosive devices. The bomb, fitted with a timing fuse, is attached to the animal’s rump and the unfortunate beast is driven in the general direction of the target, which is usually a wooden gateway in a castle’s walls. The results can be imagined. There is a reliable account of an exploding cow being used in 1132 by the Song defenders at the Chinese city of De’an to destroy the scaling ladders of the Jin dynasty’s army. A less dramatic example of the use of expendable animals to spread fire is the employment of birds that have small containers of burning tinder attached to their legs. When the birds settle on the enemy’s rooftops, the tinder will set fire to the thatch. I am not sure how the birds distinguish between enemy houses and friendly ones, but don’t let’s be pedantic.
One of the most surprising Chinese siege techniques involves the use of expendable animals. Here we see a diagram for fitting a bomb to a cow’s back.
5 Blockade and Starvation – Two Necessary Evils
A noble samurai is at his best in an active situation, plunging into a moat, clambering up stone walls and engaging in combat along a castle’s parapets. But what of those times when he simply has to sit down and wait? It is not easy, as exemplified by Lord Hideyoshi when he made war against His Most Illustrious Highness in 1584. The Tokugawa and the Toyotomi armies had a great respect for each other, having already fought during the famous battle of Nagashino, where the mounted samurai of the Takeda were broken by gunfire delivered from very simple field positions. As a result, when these two giants of warfare confronted each other at Komaki, their first reactions were to build field defences. Boredom inevitably followed, and Lord Hideyoshi, in a display of uncharacteristic impatience, ordered a diversionary frontal attack while his army made a wide circle to attack His Most Illustrious Highness’s own province. It was well executed, and His Most Illustrious Highness became aware of the trick only very late in the day. With the generalship for which he is renowned, however, His Most Illustrious Highness went on to defeat Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the battle of Nagakute, the only reverse suffered by Hideyoshi in his entire career. Komaki had come about only because both sides were bored by a stalemate. I relate this story merely to point out to you that sitting down and waiting for surrender can try the patience of even the greatest samurai. To Lord Hideyoshi’s credit, there were many other occasions when he was willing to wait, such as at the dreadful siege of Tottori, when the garrison were reduced to cannibalism. Patience is a virtue, young samurai.
Weapon Techniques during Castle Attacks
You will soon discover that the press of a melee during a field battle is nothing compared to the restrictions on movement occasioned by an attack on a castle. Imagine hundreds of samurai trying to climb the stone base of a castle; they will be almost fighting each other for handholds as rocks dropped by the garrison fall around them, some taking men to their deaths in the moat. Once the stone bases are surmounted the white walls have to be climbed, and often the only way to make an entrance is by hacking away the plaster and lath to create a hole. A fight inside the castle courtyard will tend to be a disorganized affray, and then you will be faced with the desperate situation of using spears and swords within the narrow corridors and below the low ceilings of the rooms. Spears have to be used only as thrusting weapons, and even a swung short sword can catch in a lintel and become useless. The stairs inside a keep will be very steep, so that when wounded men fall down, they take their comrades with them. Blinding smoke from arquebus fire soon fills the space, and when a keep is set alight there is no alternative but to leave. If you stay the smoke will fill your lungs and kill you long before the flames do.
Naval Warfare – Pirates or Professionals?
Japan has a long and honourable maritime tradition, although our good name in this regard has recently been besmirched by gangs of pirates who attack Chinese and Korean ships. Many of these ruffians operate from bases on the Goto Islands or from the coastline of Kyushu, so that our overseas neighbours have taken to calling them ‘Japanese pirates’. This is both insulting and inaccurate. Most of their leaders are in fact Chinese renegades, and successive shoguns have clearly demonstrated the official attitude to such felons by boiling them alive whenever they are captured. No, if we are to take pride in our sea-fighting expertise let it be due to the glorious navies of our maritime lords.
Fighting at sea is very different from fighting on land. Unlike the sleek Portuguese warships, ours are slow and clumsy, making naval warfare into something very similar to an attack on a castle. When two ships engage there will be an exchange of fire from arquebuses and the throwing of bombs. Men with grappling hooks will then try and secure the ships, after which a sword-fight will take place, accompanied by all the confusion I earlier associated with castles.
If you are a general called upon to go to war at sea, you will be faced with a difficult choice: should you send you own samurai out on to the waves (an environment where they may feel most uncomfortable) or should you entrust the operation to your own professional navy – assuming that you have one? Many lords do neither, tending instead to recruit the services of ex-pirates. Is this wise? Now, in my humble and yet considered opinion there is no such thing as an ex-pirate. Yes, I know that Lord Kuki Yoshitaka, the Admiral of the Fleet to Lord Oda Nobunaga, had something of a dubious background, but he fought well and defeated the Mori fleet at the battle of Kizugawaguchi in 1578. It’s just that one really can’t trust these people.