Honmaru Goten

*KOEDO KAWAGOE Tourist Association

During the Edo Period in 1848, Honmaru Goten was built by Matsudaira Naritsune, a Kawagoe feudal domain master who was awarded with 1.7 million koku (unit used to express the rank of a feudal master).
The oldest building in Kawagoe Honmaru Goten has been created with a samurai-like calmness. Kawagoe Castle was built by Oogigayatsu Uesugi Mochitomo to challenge Kogakubo Ashikaga Shigeuji, and in 1457 ordered Vassal Ota Michizane and Ota Dokan to construct the castle.

In 1639, Tokugawa Shogunate leader and Kawagoe feudal domain master Matsudaira Nobutsuna implemented a large scale construction project to expand Kawagoe Castle.
After the Meiji Restoration, Honmaru Goten was torn down and what remains today is only one part of what was reconstructed in 1848 - the entrance and the main hall used as waiting rooms for feudal lords who came on missions.
Once in the entrance, the hallway surrounds the room.
Some rooms are decorated very simply, but the drawings found on the cedar doors and the structure of the driveway entrance are very elaborate.
The construction can be called a palace. Dolls representing the feudal lords are found in the waiting rooms and it almost seems as if you can hear conversations from that era.