Nagoya Castle

Nagoya Castle (名古屋城) was constructed between 1610 and 1612 on the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, as a strategic stronghold on the Tokaido road and the seat of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan. It was one of the largest and most lavishly decorated castles in Japan, renowned for its pair of golden shachihoko (鯱, mythical dolphin-tiger creatures) crowning the main keep and the magnificently painted fusuma (sliding panels) of the Honmaru Palace.

The castle complex featured a five-story main keep (大天守, dai-tenshu) rising approximately 55.6 meters including its 19.5-meter stone base, a smaller adjoining keep (小天守, ko-tenshu), and the Honmaru Palace — widely regarded as the supreme masterpiece of Shoin-zukuri palatial architecture, with over 1,000 painted sliding panels by masters of the Kano school. The castle was designated a National Treasure (国宝) in 1930 under the National Treasure Preservation Law, one of the first castles to receive this distinction.

During World War II, Nagoya was a primary target of American strategic bombing because it was the center of Japan's aircraft industry, producing 40-50% of the nation's combat aircraft and engines, including the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter. The city endured 21 air raids between December 13, 1944 and July 24, 1945.

On May 14, 1945 (Mission 174), 472 B-29 Superfortresses dropped over 2,500 tons of incendiary bombs on northern Nagoya in a devastating daylight raid. Scaffolding had been erected around the golden shachihoko in preparation for their evacuation, but the incendiaries caught on the scaffolding and ignited the entire castle structure. Witnesses reported eerie purple flames as the copper roofing burned, and many residents clasped their hands in prayer as the beloved symbol of their city collapsed. The conflagration destroyed the main keep, small keep, Honmaru Palace with all its irreplaceable Kano-school paintings still inside, the golden shachihoko, and the northeast turret. The raid killed 338 people and left 66,585 homeless.

Six structures survived the bombing: the southeast turret (東南隅櫓), southwest turret (西南隅櫓), Honmaru Omote Ni-no-Mon gate (本丸表二之門), Ninomaru Higashi Ni-no-Mon gate (二之丸東二之門), Ninomaru Ote Ni-no-Mon gate (二之丸大手二之門), and the northwest turret (西北隅櫓). These surviving structures were later designated Important Cultural Properties.

Remarkably, 1,047 of the Honmaru Palace's painted sliding panels (障壁画) had been removed for safekeeping before the raids and survived the war. They had been designated National Treasures under the prewar law in 1942 and are today Important Cultural Properties.

The main keep was reconstructed in reinforced concrete in 1959, incorporating a modern museum inside. A full-scale wooden reconstruction of the Honmaru Palace, based on meticulous wartime documentation including photographs and measured drawings, was completed in 2018 at a cost of approximately 15 billion yen. The city of Nagoya has announced plans for a complete wooden reconstruction of the main keep to restore the castle to its original 1612 appearance, though the project has faced delays and debate.

Nagoya Castle stands as a powerful testament to the cultural devastation wrought by strategic bombing — the loss of a National Treasure that embodied centuries of Japanese architectural and artistic achievement.