Ecruteak City

Ecruteak City (Japanese: エンジュシティ Enju City) is an old-fashioned city located in northern Johto, situated in the woods between tall Mt. Mortar and the open fields near Johto's western shores.

As with many of the larger cities in the Pokémon world, Ecruteak has a Pokémon Gym, led by Morty, who specializes in Pokémon and hands out the  to those who defeat him.

Ecruteak is known as a historical and mythical city; fittingly, its buildings all feature traditional Japanese architecture, while the tallest building in the city, and perhaps all of Johto, is the ten-story Bell Tower in the city's northeast corner, built nearly a millennium before the events of the games. The city is known as being a centerpoint of the Legendary Pokémon native to the Johto region, with the great once being said to have roosted atop the Bell Tower, and having created three Legendary beasts of the Pokémon who perished when the Brass Tower burned down.

Generation II
A Historical City Where the Past Meets the Present (Japanese: むかしと　いまが　どうじに　ながれる　れきしの　まち The city where present and past concurrently flow in history.)

Generation IV
A Historical City (Japanese: れきしが　ながれる　まち The city where history flows.)

Ecruteak Dance Theater
The Ecruteak Dance Theater is where the Kimono Girls dance and battle. The director will give the player the HM for in Generation II, after defeating the Kimono Girls, and in Generation IV, after defeating a rude. Each of the five Kimono Girls has an evolution of :, , , , and. In Generation II, the player can freely choose their order of facing Kimono Girls. In Generation IV, the player battles them in a fixed order, having to defeat all five consecutively.



Ecruteak Gym
The Ecruteak Gym is the official Gym of Ecruteak City. It is based on. The Gym Leader is Morty. s who defeat him receive the.

In and, the undefined cannot challenge Morty, the Ecruteak Gym Leader when they first arrive in Ecruteak City, as Morty has gone with his friend Eusine to the Burned Tower, searching for signs of the Legendary beasts. When the player awakens, , and in the Burned Tower, Morty returns to the Gym, allowing for him to be challenged.

The Ecruteak Gym is designed as a sort of maze, where one wrong step off the right path will send a challlenger back to the beginning. In, the Gym has an invisible path leading to Morty and passing several Trainers. In, the path is visible but the Gym is largely shrouded in darkness. Flames light up certain points in the path, including around Trainers, but once the player defeats a Trainer, their light will go out.

Burned Tower
The sad remains of this once-great tower, in the northwestern corner of the city, are all that is left after a fire engulfed it 150 years before the events of the games. It was once as majestic as the Bell Tower to the east, with the two towers representative of where Pokémon awakened and where they slept.

According to some legends, once perched on this tower; however, others place Lugia as always living in the Whirl Islands. Three Legendary beasts make their home in the basement of the tower, given new life after it burned down by, who once perched atop the Bell Tower. , exploring the area, will challenge him or her a third time when he or she arrives here.



Barrier Station to Bell Tower
The Barrier Station to Bell Tower is a grand, red-roofed gatehouse located in the north of Ecruteak City, at the end of the city's wide main street. This gate houses three s, collectively called the Wise Trio (Japanese: ３にんしゅう group of 3 men). It serves to prevent the player proceeding to Bell Tower until they have the. In, the three Sages battle the player before allowing passage. Past the station is Ecruteak's Bellchime Trail and Bell Tower.

Bellchime Trail
Bellchime Trail is a short path in the northeast of Ecruteak City connecting it to the Bell Tower. In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, it is a separate save location within Ecruteak City; in Pokémon Gold and Silver, it was unnamed and part of the same map as Ecruteak City's main area.

Bell Tower
A majestic tower to the east, the Bell Tower is where was once said to roost. With the Rainbow Wing, the player is able to prove to Ho-Oh that he or she is a pure-hearted person who will bring Pokémon and people back into harmony with one another.

On the first floor, lingers in, awaiting the player's arrival with a Clear Bell.

Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal
Ecruteak City's population is 31, making it the third-largest city in Johto.

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Ecruteak City's population is 44, making it the fourth-largest city in Johto, behind Goldenrod City, Violet City, and Olivine City.

In the main series
Ecruteak City first appeared in A Ghost of a Chance and From Ghost to Ghost, when and  arrived there for Ash's next Johto Gym. On their way, they encountered a street artist and named Infernando, who tried to sell them a "Treasure Detector", but they declined the offer. When James later encountered him as well, he gladly bought the detector with the money he had been supposed to spend for food.

Meanwhile, Ash and his friends wandered into the Burned Tower, mistaking it for the Ecruteak Gym. After they experienced some trouble with the local Ghost Pokémon, Morty arrived at the site and cleared everything up, then informed the group that the place was in fact once called the Tin Tower, a nestling ground for the Legendary Pokémon. When the tower burned down during a fight over Ho-Oh's power, the Rainbow Pokémon fled, never to be seen again, even though a new Tin Tower was built nearby in hopes that this would someday happen. Upon seeing a picture of Ho-Oh, Ash instantly recognized it as the mysterious Pokémon he saw on the day he started his journey, although Morty didn't seem to believe him. After dealing with trying to steal  once again, Ash and Morty agreed to have a Gym battle. The battle was conducted during the next day, where Ash, using his as his ace, managed to pull through and win himself the. Morty also admitted that Ash might have indeed seen Ho-Oh like he claimed.

In Trouble's Brewing, before heading to Olivine City, Ash and his friends encountered the Kimono Sisters. The youngest of the sisters, Sakura, struck a friendship with the group, and wondered if she should start traveling with them. Eventually, however, she decided to train on her own before embarking on her own journey.

In Espeon, Not Included, Ash and his friends returned to Ecruteak City on their way to Mahogany Town, and encountered the Kimono Girls again, finding out that Sakura had evolved her into an. In For Ho-Oh the Bells Toll!, the group met Eusine, a friend of Morty's and a pursuer of the Legendary Pokémon. Upon finding out that Ash had seen Suicune, he accused him of lying and tried to challenge him to a battle, but the match was interrupted when Bug Pokémon started going wild around the city due to Team Rocket having stolen and accidentally broken one of the four Crystal Bells. While dealing with the trio of thieves, the group came face to face with Suicune itself. Eusine attempted to battle the Legendary beast, but the Aurora Pokémon easily escaped by using on Eusine's.

Ecruteak City also made a cameo appearance in Staging a Heroes' Welcome! as the current location of Drew, Harley, and Solidad, and in An Egg Scramble! in 's presentation of the Johto region during the Johto Festival.

In Pokémon Generations
Ecruteak City made a brief appearance in The Adventure, where attacked a trio of   swimming in a river. However, since they were Pokémon, Pikachu's  didn't hurt them at all. The Wooper then counterattacked with just as  flew by, knocking Pikachu into the air.

Ecruteak City reappeared in a major role in The Reawakening. Eusine was seen visiting the Burned Tower, all the while going through the story of how the tower originally burned down, killing the three nameless Pokémon that then resurrected in the form of the Legendary beasts. Unexpectedly, showed up, allowing Eusine to look at itself for a few seconds before leaving. Despite the encounter being very brief, Eusine felt hopeful that the Legendary beasts were probably starting to regain their faith in humanity.

Ecruteak City debuted in Quilava Quandary, where the entire city was caught up in a giant earthquake. Jasmine, who was on her way to meet the Day-Care Couple at, got caught up in the devastation and ended up getting trapped in rubble. In Ampharos Amore, and  noticed the light sent up by Jasmine's Amphy and rescued her, also coming to realize that the  had been caused by a trained Pokémon. The Pokémon in question was revealed to be a used by a group of Team Rocket members, including the two  Carl and Sham. With their combined efforts, Gold and Silver were able to defeat Team Rocket and force them to retreat. It was later revealed that Team Rocket had destroyed the city in an attempt to make appear.

The city was later rebuilt under Jasmine's supervision. In Buzz Off, Butterfree!, was revealed to have unintentionally released the  from their imprisonment at the Burned Tower's basement during the rebuilding project.

Gold traveled there to ask Morty about Lance's whereabouts, with Silver arriving shortly after to get Morty's help in locating the Plates scattered around Johto. Unexpectedly, the Ecruteak Gym was attacked by, and Gold started pursuing it while Silver headed out to collect all the Plates.

In the Pokémon Gold & Silver: The Golden Boys manga
In Gold and Black VS Team Rocket, 🇬🇼 and Whitney arrived in Ecruteak City and attended the Pokémon Summit, a battle event held at a dome built on the former site of the Burned Tower. However, the event was interrupted by an attack by Team Rocket. Fortunately, the three Legendary beasts appeared and prevented Team Rocket from destroying the dome, although the event was still cancelled due to this incident.

In A Promise Given to Miltank, Gold attempted to challenge Morty, but he refused to let Gold into his Gym with only two Badges. After Gold had gotten the from Whitney, he tried to challenge Morty again, only to find out that he was leaving the Gym for a while and thus was unable to battle him. As such, Morty chose to give Gold a for free and told him to keep it at least until they could have a proper Gym battle.

Trivia

 * During the pre-release of, Game Freak's Official Fan Book of Pocket Monsters (Japanese: ポケットモンスター公式ファンブック) from 1997 hinted at a location containing called Old City (Japanese: オールドシティ). This was likely a prototype of Ecruteak City.
 * An unused house in Olivine City features an NPC that claims that a pharmacist in Ecruteak made medicine for her . As the pharmacy is actually in Cianwood City, this suggests that it was originally planned for Ecruteak City during the development of.
 * Unused early maps of Ecruteak City also hint at the Magnet Train running through it as well, possibly instead of through Goldenrod City. The reason they may have considered this could have to do with the fact that, the city that Ecruteak City is based on, is an intermediate stop on the real-world , which inspired the Magnet Train.
 * The soundtrack of HeartGold and SoulSilver reveals that the for Enju is 縁寿, meaning "longevity of a relationship".
 * Due to the fact that the burning of the Brass Tower has eyewitnesses that the player can talk to, this would make some residents over 150 years old.
 * In the of, the  are named ,  and , referencing the manga.
 * A painting of Ecruteak City is on display in the Lumiose Museum in Pokémon X and Y.

Name origin
Teak City Ciudad Iris Rosalia Amarantopoli エンジュシティ 圆朱市