Shintaro of Nijo Castle

When we were young, we spent countless hours watching a black-and-white dubbed Japanese television program called The Samurai. Set in the days of the Shogun of between 1601 and 1868, the hero, Shintaro seeks out and eliminates rival feudal lords that want to overthrow the Shogunate.

So, here we are in the midst of Shogun history, where the UNESCO Heritage Site, Nijo Castle was not only used to house the Shogun and his family, but also was the centre of government administration for 250 years until authority was returned to the Imperial court.

We remove our shoes and place them on a shelf before stepping on a covered timber hallway floor. I walk past the reception rooms, which are devoid of all furniture. Tatami mats cover the entire floors whilst the golden walls are covered with magnificent paintings, none of which can be photographed. As I glide past the rooms, I become aware of a chirping sound and realise that it is coming from the floor upon which we are walking. Called nightingale floors, these were apparently not Japan’s earliest alarm system, alerting those inside of intruders, but an accidental phenomenon, which we are able to experience ourselves. The sounds are caused by metal flooring nails rubbing against the underside of the boards as pressure is placed upon them. Whether they are used as an early warning system or not, the sound becomes ‘normal’ to us as we walk through the castle. Although I am not familiar with the sound of nightingales, true to floor's name, the noise does resemble the sound of birds chirping in the background.

The castle is described as an example of ‘social control manifested in architectural space’. This means that lowly visitors had been received in the outer regions of the palace, which are the first rooms we walked past. Here, the walls and sliding doors are covered in paintings of intimidating scenery including wild tigers appearing from clouds, teeth bared. Around the corner were paintings of tiger families, and although I do not at first understand why leopards feature on these walls, the guide mentions that there was an idea that of every litter of tigers born, at least one was a leopard. She also mentions that although leopards were native to the northern areas of Japan, it is believed that the paintings of the tigers and leopards may have been modelled on skins or drawings that came from China and Korea.

As we move through the palace, the wall scenery becomes less intimidating and there is more decoration in the carved panels above the sliding doors and ceilings. These are the rooms used by the Shogun and his family. No ferocious tigers on these walls, instead, they are decorated with gnarled pine trees and cherry blossoms.

As we return to our shoes and the 21st century, I reflect upon our choice of Saturday morning television programming of our childhood. The Samurai may be a fictional piece of television from the 1960s, but is based on the historical Shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, during whose reign, Nijo Palace was built.