This Castle Is
All Of Freestone, Strengthened By Bulwarks And Battlements, Having
Loop-Holes For Small Arms And Arrows, And Various Passages For Throwing
Down Stones Upon The Assailants.
The walls are at least six or seven
yards thick, all built of freestone throughout, having no packing with
trumpery within, as I was told, but all solid.
The stones are large and
of excellent quality, and are so exactly cut to fit the places where
they are laid, that no mortar is used, only a little earth being
occasionally thrown in to fill up any void spaces.
In the castle of Osaka, when I was there, dwelt the son of Tiquasama,
who was the true heir of Japan; but being an infant at the death of his
father, he was left under the guardianship of four chiefs or great men,
of whom Ogoshosama, the present emperor, was the principal. The other
three guardians were each desirous of acquiring the sovereignty, and
being opposed by Ogoshosama, levied armies against him; but Ogoshosama
defeated them in battle, in which two of them were slain, and the other
saved himself by flight. After this great victory, Ogoshosama attempted
what he is said not to have thought of before. Seizing the true heir of
the throne, he married the young prince to his own daughter, and
confined them in the castle of Osaka, under the charge of such persons
only as had been brought up from their childhood under the roof of the
usurper, so that by their means he has regular intelligence of every
thing they do.
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