The mainstream of large buildings in the ancient civilizations of the world was stone.
On the other hand, in Japan, Todaiji Even in a huge building like this, wooden construction is the mainstream. Stone is also used in Japanese castles, but the building itself was made of wood or soil with only the stone wall at the base.
This is because there were few high-quality stones that were easy to process in Japan.
Differences between Japanese and foreign castles
In foreign countries, walls Enclosed castles and castle towns However, in Japan, a moat is dug and the soil is earthworks . I made a wall called. However, since this earthwork alone is easy to collapse and the enemy can easily climb, it is reinforced with Ishigaki . Things are now done.
However, it took a lot of skill and construction period to make a stone wall in the whole castle. Therefore, until the end of the Warring States period, most castles did not have stone walls. Stone walls began to be built in modern castles after the construction of Azuchi Castle, but even so, there were castles that were only in the center or not at all.
Utsunomiya Castle ↑
However, famous castles, Edo Castle, Osaka Castle, Kanazawa Castle, Kumamoto Castle, Himeji Castle The magnificence of stone walls such as these is as good as the huge structures in the world.
It can be said that the Japanese castle is a building that has evolved the wooden construction technology that is not found in the world and the unique use of stone materials.
How was Ishigaki piled up?
Stone walls are not just piled up. The stone of the stone wall is a quadrangular pyramid with the part visible on the surface as the base. It has a shape close to. In other words, it is designed to be inserted into the part of the soil that serves as the foundation. However, it was unstable just by inserting it, so I packed it with pebbles called Kuriishi.
In addition, there are many types of stones that are characteristic of Japan, and it is difficult to align the shapes because stones of different materials are used. ] You can see how to stack.
Kumamoto Castle's Nozomi
Gradually, he was involved in famous castles in various places [ Anō-shu ], A specialized group of only Nozomi has come to appear.
However, if it is a field area with many gaps, it will easily collapse, and it is easy for enemies who attack to get their hands on the gaps, so orderly masonry has come to be required. In modern castles, the powerful power of the castle owner was used to carry suitable stones from a distance, and the surface was gradually formed to form a stone wall with few gaps.
Through such trial and error, driving hagi and cutting hagi The number of orderly stone walls that are said to be increasing.
Ishikawa Castle's driving stone wall
Edo Castle's notch hagi, which can be said to be the completed system of stone walls
Higher and steeper stone wall
It is not always the case that a Japanese castle cannot be built without making a stone wall. Even if it is not a stone wall, you can build a castle with earthworks made of solid soil. However, it was not possible to raise the building or make a steep slope with the solidified soil.
The foundation should be as high as possible and steep so that it will not come up when attacked by the enemy. For this reason, stone walls have been built in modern castles.
Stone walls and earthworks are the foundations of the castle itself. To solidify the foundation, it is better to have a gentle slope, but to prevent the enemy from climbing, you have to make a steep slope.
To meet both, draw a curve on the stone wall so that the bottom is gentle and the top is vertical. This is [ fan gradient ] Is called.
Also, the stone wall inside the moat is not a straight line and may be bent in the middle. This is called Yokoya, and the way it bends is [ folding . ] And [ distortion ] And so on. This is a trap that allows you to attack the collapse of the stone wall and the climbing enemies from the side.
In this way, even one stone wall has complicated elements and is very deep, so the sample castle may be attractive.