太田资宣（Ōta Sukenobu） · Public domain
Muromachi period · 1432–1486
Ōta Dōkan
太田道灌 · Japan
Builder of Edo Castle, warrior and poet
Born Ōta Sukenaga, he was a retainer of the Uesugi family, the Kantō deputy shoguns, as well as a warrior, poet and monk. In 1457 he built a castle at Edo for his lord of the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi branch, starting its walls and moats, and the next year took holy orders under the name 'Dōkan'. He is regarded as the founder of Edo's castle town — the castle later became the Tokugawa shogunate's headquarters and is today the Imperial Palace. He was assassinated at his lord's house in 1486.
Where the story happened
Los lugares que dejó
Historia · East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (site of Edo Castle)
Ōta Dōkan's castle, Tokugawa Ieyasu's realm
In 1457 Ōta Dōkan, a retainer of the Uesugi family, the Kantō deputies, built a castle at Edo, digging moats and building walls; the following year he took Buddhist vows and the name 'Dōkan'. He is regarded as the founder of the castle town of Edo but was assassinated by his lord in 1486. More than a century later, in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took Odawara and granted the eight Kantō provinces to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who made this by-then-derelict castle his base. In 1603 he founded the Edo shogunate, and Edo became the political centre of Japan until, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the castle became the Imperial Palace.
