o-oku

Updated: May 29, 2025

It is unnecessary to describe the organization and duties of the military guards to whom the safety of the castle was entrusted, but the fact has to be noted that both men and officers were invariably taken from the hatamoto class. In the o-oku, or innermost buildings of the shogun's castle, the harem was situated.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era