Ote-mon Gate: The Whale .. [4 / 4] Sculpture of a toothy beast of the deep at Edo Castle’s

Ote-mon Gate: The Whale .. [4 / 4] Sculpture of a toothy beast of the deep at Edo Castle’s Ote-mon gate. Tokyo, Kanto, Japan. The Ote-mon Gate was the main gate of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s Edo Castle. Daimyos (feudal lords) used to come to attend ceremonies held inside the castle through this gate. A smaller gate and a larger gate form a right angle, the structure which was to slow the advance of intruders. Trapped between the two gates, intruders would come under attack from firing points of the larger gate. The larger gate was destroved in an air raid in April 1945 during the Second World War and was rebuilt in 1967. The decorative acquatic animal in the square of the Ote-mon Gate was once placed on the roof of the lost larger gate. The inscription on the head of the sculpture reads the year 1657. -- source link

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