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Moats are large ditches dug around the castle and filled with water. They add another important defensive element to the overall castle fortifications. Moats need not be especially deep to be effective. The inner wall of the moat is always considerably higher than the water level. An enemy would have to attempt to scale this wall directly from the water which is sure to be a difficult task. Moats often served as an important waterway around the castle and a link to nearby rivers as well. The pictures above and below are both of moats at Edo Castle in Tokyo. Moats where the bottom is lined with rock in the same manner as the walls are called yagenbori. The bottom of these moats is often curved. Moats with a flat unlined bottom are called hakobori. Sometimes there were also moats which were not filled with water. These are called karabori. The picture below on the left is of one of the huge moats at Edo-jo and the picture on the right is of a well kept moat at Shirakawa-jo.  |
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