How Japanese Castles are similar to European Castles
1.They had large and tall walls for protection
2. They often had moats around them to discourage the digging of tunnels
3. They had narrow and steep stairways to make assault difficult
4. They had portholes for guns and for arrows
5. They often had a main gate area that could be used as a trap
6. They almost always had concentric rings of walls to give them multiple layers of protection
7.They capitalized on terrain features - often the best placement was at the top of a hill or small mountain. This gave a very advantageous position and view
DIFFERENCES
Unlike European feudalism Japan’s feudalism system did not have a true pyramid form with the monarch presiding over the less important nobles.
First, the authority in Japan was much less centralized than it was in the nation-states of Europe. Even though most of the local aristocrats paid lip service to the emperor, the rugged terrain of Japan made it very difficult for the emperor to fully control the local aristocracy. Therefore the local aristocrats had much more power in Japan than they ever had in France, Britain, or any other European country.
Secondly, even though the lower nobility in Japan (the samurai) swore fealty to their local lords, the local lords didn’t give the samurai any land of their own. When the European nobility receives land in exchange for their military services, the samurai did not join a landowning hierarchy. Instead of that they were given an independent income from their local lord based upon what that lord’s lands produced.
In contrast, European knights usually had their own serfs to work the land the knights received from their lord. While a Japanese samurai might have had servants, these servants did not work the land the way they would have done in Europe.