, committed suicide after the fall of Osaka Castle In 1583
Toyotomi Hideyoshi commenced construction on the site of the
Ikkō-ikki temple of
Ishiyama Hongan-ji. The basic plan was modeled after
Azuchi Castle, the headquarters of
Oda Nobunaga. Hideyoshi wanted to build a castle that mirrored Nobunaga's but surpassed it in every way: the plan featured a five-story main tower with three extra stories underground and
gold leaf on the sides to impress visitors. In 1585, the Inner donjon was completed. Hideyoshi continued to expand the castle, making it increasingly formidable to attackers. Construction was completed in 1597, and Hideyoshi died the following year. Osaka Castle passed to his son,
Toyotomi Hideyori. In 1614,
Tokugawa Ieyasu besieged the Toyotomi clan forces in Osaka castle during the winter, starting the
Siege of Osaka. Although the Toyotomi forces were outnumbered approximately two to one, they managed to fight off Tokugawa's 200,000-man army and protect the castle's outer walls. Ieyasu had the castle's outer moat filled, thereby negating one of its main outer defenses. During the summer of 1615, Hideyori began to restore the outer moat. Ieyasu, in outrage, sent his armies to Osaka Castle again, and routed the Toyotomi men inside the outer walls on June 4. Later, Osaka Castle fell to the
Tokugawa shogunate and the
Toyotomi clan perished, as
Toyotomi Hideyori and
Yodo-dono committed seppuku and the castle buildings burned to the ground. He assigned the task of constructing new walls to individual samurai clans. The walls built in the 1620s still stand today and are made out of interlocked granite boulders without mortar. Many of the stones were brought from rock quarries near the
Seto Inland Sea and bear inscribed crests of the various families who contributed them. The shogunate also built a new elevated central tower, five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside. Construction of the
tenshu started in 1628 and was completed two years later, about the same time as the rest of the reconstruction, and followed the general layout of the original Toyotomi structure. In 1660, lightning ignited the gunpowder warehouse, and the resulting explosion set the castle on fire. In 1665, lightning struck and burnt down the
tenshu. In 1843, after decades of neglect, the castle got much-needed repairs when the bakufu collected money from the people of the region to rebuild several of the turrets. In 1868,
Osaka Castle fell and was surrendered to anti-bakufu imperial loyalists. A number of the castle buildings were burned in the civil conflicts surrounding the
Meiji Restoration. Under the Meiji government, Osaka Castle became part of the Osaka Army Arsenal (
Osaka Hohei Kosho), manufacturing guns, ammunition, and explosives for Japan's rapidly expanding Western-style military. In 1931, the
ferroconcrete tenshu was built. During World War II, the arsenal became one of the largest military armories, employing 60,000 workers. American bombing raids targeting the arsenal damaged the reconstructed main keep and, on August 14, 1945, destroyed 90% of the arsenal and killed 382 people working there. In 1995, Osaka's government approved yet another restoration project, aiming to restore the main keep to its Edo-era splendor. In 1997, restoration was completed. The keep is a concrete reproduction (including elevators) of the original, and the interior is intended as a modern, functioning museum. Located in the Nishinomaru was the former residence of the
jōdai, who were officials. The residence was the second largest after the Honmaru Palace. North of it were several warehouses. The site is now a park. Next to it is the
Osaka State Guest House and the Hōshō-an
chashitsu. ==Views of the castle==