Osaka Castle Tower Wins National Cultural Status

Japan’s Cultural Affairs Council has recommended that Osaka Castle’s main keep and seven other buildings receive Important Cultural Property status. The keep’s history includes local donations and its later use as a museum for visitors. The council submitted its recommendation to culture minister Yoshihiro Seki on Friday, and officials expect to announce the designation in the near future.

A Tower Built With Local Donations

Local residents donated the money to build the present Osaka Castle main keep, completed in 1931. The steel-reinforced concrete structure has five external tiers and eight floors. Builders created it in the early Showa Era to recreate the castle’s appearance during the time of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, drawing on historical research into the original castle.

The present keep serves as a museum. It displays items associated with Hideyoshi alongside other historical exhibits. Its eighth-floor observation deck offers panoramic views of Osaka. The design, combining a local history museum with an observation deck, later influenced the reconstruction of castle towers across Japan.

The council’s recommendation covers the building that now stands where two earlier towers once stood. Fire destroyed the original main keep, built during Hideyoshi’s time, in 1615 during the Summer Siege of Osaka. The Tokugawa shogunate rebuilt a second tower, but lightning destroyed it in 1665. The current structure is the site’s third tower.

What the Designation Would Cover

The Cultural Affairs Council recommended eight buildings for Important Cultural Property status. Alongside Osaka Castle’s main keep, the list includes four structures at Zuisenji temple in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture; the Hatto, or Dharma Hall, at Kenninji temple in Kyoto; and the main building of the Nara Hotel in Nara.

If officials approve the recommendations, the number of buildings designated Important Cultural Properties would rise to 2,619, including 235 National Treasures. The council has made its recommendation, but officials haven’t announced the designations.

The recommendation would give state cultural status to a building whose construction depended on local residents’ donations and whose later use brings together historical exhibits and an observation deck. The source doesn’t report the amount donated, the construction cost, or any change to the keep’s operation under the proposed status.

A District Also Recommended for Preservation

The council also recommended designating the Yoshihara district in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. The former fishing town contains traditional townhouses dating from the final years of the Edo Period through the mid-Showa Era.

If approved, Yoshihara would become the 131st district nationwide with that designation. The recommendation concerns a group of buildings and the character of a former fishing town, while Osaka Castle’s recommendation concerns one main keep among eight buildings proposed for cultural-property status.

The two recommendations leave the final designations pending. For the castle keep, the council’s record traces a history from earlier towers destroyed by fire and lightning to a concrete museum built with local donations in 1931. Its current role includes preserving historical exhibits and giving visitors a view of Osaka.