Castletowns6

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Outline

1. Castles were made of wood • Curved walls were decorated with gold • Castles had wood framed walls • Interlocking joints absorb movement 2. One castle had seven floors • Soldiers could fire through windows with closed shutters • The Daimyo lived at the top of the castle during attacks 3. The moat was the first line of defense • There was a maze that made it hard for enemies to pass • Stone walls pour hot liquid or rocks on enemies invading • A defense is nightingale
 * There were wooden defenses on hills used for surveillance and protection
 * Precursors to castles and castle-building
 * Grew more elaborate during the Warring States period
 * As importance of the castles grew, the castles became a focal point of economic activity
 * When the samurai moved in, castle towns became even more important
 * All activities were controlled by and directed to the castles

Essay Castles and Castle towns first started in the early 16th century in ancient Japan. Some famous castles are the Himeji castle and the Nijo castle. The Nijo castle has an alarm system which is when anything touches the wood, the wood creaks. The Himeji castle has a defense system of gatehouses like a maze that is a mile and a half long, and there are several vantage points for the samurai to shoot guns or arrows. The basic explanation of a castle town is that it is a circular town was built around a castle. The origins of castles are wooden defenses on hills. These wooden defenses were used for surveillance and protection. The wooden defenses were also precursors to the castles that looked fantastic. The castles grew more elaborate and detailed during the Warring States period. That was when they invented all of the good security systems. The popularity of the castles grew, and as the importance of the castles grew the castles became more economically important for everyone. After a while, the castles became the complete focal point of that place, and a town was built around the castle for reasons like protecting the castles, trying to have trade with the Daimyo, etc.. When the Samurai moved in for the Daimyo or other reasons, the castle towns became even more important. All of the activities such as Kabuki theatre and other forms of entertainment and trade were directed to and controlled by the castle. Castles back then were normally only made out of wood. There was not much steel in the process of making the castle. Interlocking joints absorbed the movement so if there was any earthquake that occurs the castle would not break so easily. In the castle there are wood framed walls all over the place. The curved walls on the outside of the castle were mostly covered in gold but only some castles had this decoration. Many castles were big but one was very big. The Himeji castle had a least seven floors in it. Lots of the floors are where samurai would probably live. There are windows with closed shutters so that samurai could shoot bad people or throw rocks on them. During attacks the Daimyo would live at the top of the castle and at least two samurai would guard him. The Daimyo is the leader of many samurai. There were many lines of defense in a castle. A lot of them were outside of the castle and not inside of it. The first line of defense is the moat which just a bunch of water. Another line of defense is the rock wall and if it breaks it pours hot liquid and rocks on the bad guys. The Himeji castle has a maze to get to the castle so it’s like an illusion so people think that the castle is through the next door but it’s not there. One castle had a security device called nightingale it makes a chirping sound so guards could hear someone walking and trying to tress pass into the castle.

Sources 1. Sands, Stella Ed. "dressed for success." Samurai. Kids Discover. Nov 2004. 2. Williams, Brian. Forts and Castles. Great Britain: Hamlyn Children's Books, 1994. print 3. Reischauer, Edwin O. and Albert M. Craig. Japan Tradition and Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company, 1989. 4. Nardo, Don. //Traditional Japan.// San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1995. Print. 5.Deal, William E. //Handbook to life in Medieval and modern Japan.// New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Print.

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