Sakura Nagoya Castle Stock Image

Originally built on the orders of the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, commissioned in 1610 and completed in 1612, the reconstructed Nagoya Castle features a new five-story main keep or donjon mounted by a pair of 3m-long golden shachi dolphins, which have become symbols of the city and are made in strict accordance with the originals. Nagoya Castle was constructed on a huge scale to emphasize the power of Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and his ascent to the position of shogun, effectively in control of the whole of Japan. Nagoya Castle also secured Ieyasu`s western flank on the Tokaido highway which ran from Kyoto to Edo present-day Tokyo.