Visiting Kawagoe
-Welcome to Kawagoe Part II-

Continuing with our last edition Welcome to Kawagoe, we would like to introduce “cultural and historic” of Kawagoe areas.

Kawagoe Castle
Kawagoe Castle was built in 1457 by Ota Doshin and his famous son Dokan under the order of Uesugi Mochitomo. About the some time they also built the original structure of Edo Castle. When Tokugawa Ieyasu conquered the kanto District in 1590, he established Kawagoe Han. (Han was the term for prefecture during the feudal age). Kawagoe soon became a military base for the defense of Edo and was a commercial base for transportation of goods and other materials to Edo. So twenty-one well-known historical characters successively become the lords of Kawagoe Castile. Today, most of the old sites of Kawagoe Castile are used as a park open to residents. The residence of the lord is Honmaru Goten. This is the only remaining building which reminds us of the original structure of Kawagoe Castile. The Goten is a wooden structure built in 1848. it has 5,866 ft2 in area and nine of the rooms are covered with Tatami mats, with 123 mats in all. The Goten is used as a sort of museum where archaeological artifacts, pictures of cultural properties and the model of the castle are displayed.

Kitain Temple
Kitain is a head temple of Tendaishu Buddhist sects in kanto District. It was built in 830. Tenkai Sojo, who come to Kitain as an archbishop during the late 16th century, made it famous and thriving. Tenkai earned the trust of Tokugawa Ieyasu who visited Kawagoe for hunting in 1611. The fire in 1638 destroyed the temple. Only the main gate escaped the fire. Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogun ordered the reconstruction of the
temple. He answered the wish of Tenkai who wanted to move part of the buildings of Edo Castle to Kitain. This eventuated in the only one remaining structure of the original Edo Castle. On the site of the temple there are several cultural and historical properties, such as Gohyakurakan and Jigendo which attract many visitors.

Gohyaku-Rakan Statues
There are 538 stone statues which are arranged in one part of Kitain. Rakan translated literally means 500 disciples of Buddha. The statues on an average are not so tall, but have a variety of postures (standing, sitting and lying) and display several emotions (happiness, sadness and anger). The statues give a humorous impression to visitors and draw attention of mass media. They carry the story. The statues are really popular with many visitors.



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