ABSTRACT
In the early years of their power, the Tokugawas put all their efforts into strengthening Edo Castle itself. It became a stronghold even more powerful than Hideyoshi's Osaka Castle and surpassed his mansions in heavy magnificence. The town grew up around the tidewater moats which ran in angular lines around it. The inner ramparts of the castle were vast walls of stone rising from these moats; their corners curved outward and down into the water with the curiously graceful lines peculiar to this type of Japanese masonry. Along the top of the ramparts, pine trees were planted and ingeniously trained to droop out and downward over the walls, as plandets hang against lesser embankments.
