Osaka Castle keep proposed for cultural property designation

Japan’s Cultural Affairs Council has asked culture minister Yoshihiro Seki to grant Important Cultural Property status to eight buildings, among them Osaka Castle’s main keep. An official announcement is expected soon. The proposed additions would take the national total to 2,619 buildings, a figure that includes 235 National Treasures.

The Osaka keep dates to 1931, when contributions from local residents funded its completion. Researchers drew on historical evidence to recreate the castle’s appearance under warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Built with steel-reinforced concrete, the tower contains eight floors behind an exterior arranged in five tiers. It operates as a museum, displaying objects connected to Hideyoshi alongside other historical material, with an observation deck on its eighth floor.

Two earlier towers occupied the site: the first burned during the Summer Siege of Osaka in 1615, while its Tokugawa shogunate replacement was lost to lightning in 1665. The council’s other recommendations include the Nara Hotel’s main building in Nara, Kenninji temple’s Hatto, also known as the Dharma Hall, in Kyoto, and four buildings belonging to Zuisenji temple in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture.

A separate recommendation concerns Yoshihara, a former fishing town in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture. The council proposed recognizing it as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Its traditional townhouses span the closing years of the Edo Period (1603-1867) to the middle of the Showa Era. Approval would increase Japan’s tally of these preservation districts to 131.