Nijo Castle and Samurai History

The Higashi Ote-mon is a heavy wooden gate topped with a tiled roof, identifiable by the intricate gold leaf carvings of cranes and chrysanthemums embedded in its dark cedar beams. Tokugawa Ieyasu built it in sixteen oh three as the…

The Kara-mon Gate stands out with its heavy, curved cypress bark roof and dense wood carvings of tigers, cranes, and bamboo. It served as the formal entrance for the shogun when he visited Nijo Castle. In the autumn of sixteen thirty-four,…

The Ninomaru-goten Palace sits behind a heavy, gold-leafed gate, marked by roofs of dark, layered wood and elaborate cypress bark. It was the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shoguns, built in sixteen twenty-six to impress the emperor…

The Ninomaru Garden features massive, carefully arranged boulders positioned to appear as if they are floating in the pond. Designed by the landscape architect Kobori Enshu in the seventeenth century, the garden serves as the formal…

The Honmaru-goten Palace features a low-slung, dark wood exterior with intricate, white-plastered gables that distinguish it from the rest of the Nijo Castle complex. Built for the Japanese imperial family, it remains one of the few…

The stone foundation at the center of Nijo Castle rises like a jagged, empty pedestal where the five-story Tenshukaku once stood. Tokugawa Iemitsu ordered the tower moved here from Fushimi Castle in sixteen twenty-six to impress the…

Seiryu-en Garden features a massive collection of over one thousand rocks and carefully pruned pine trees set against the stark stone walls of Nijo Castle. Created in nineteen sixty-five, the garden occupies the former site of the castle's…

The Shinsen-en Garden features a vermilion bridge that arches sharply over a dark pond, surrounded by the quiet walls of a Buddhist temple. It began in the late eighth century as the private pleasure garden for the Emperor when the capital…