When I woke up on my first full day in Japan, I decided to ditch the Osaka Castle and head right on to Kyoto. I took the JR line to Kyoto from the Osaka Station, having to navigate the morning’s rush hour, and arrived in Kyoto in an hour or so. From Kyoto I took the metro to the Pocket Hotel at Gojo Station first. I had my first ever Japanese breakfast. I then decided to visit the Nijo Castle.

A Brief History of Kyoto

Kyoto, meaning “the capital city,” was in fact the capital of Japan for most of Japan’s premodern history. Beginning in the start of the Heian period (794 A.D.), Kyoto replaced Nara as the seat of the emperor, until in 1868, when the capital was moved to Edo, modern-day Tokyo, after the Meiji period.

With such a long history comes the abundance of historically significant sites to visit. From castles to temples, from shrines to century-old wet markets, Kyoto offers enormous opportunities for the heritage tourist to feel the presence of history. In the fall, the foliage of ancient trees dresses Kyoto in every shade of the palette. In Kyoto the expression of its historical character is anything but subtle. In the fall, the city exhibits a symphony of colors that celebrates, unabashedly, the beauty of the historic currents that made Japan itself, be they exuded in the form of architecture, or in its nature alike.

In Kyoto’s centuries-old tenure as the capital city of Japan, there was one particularly important period that bore significant implications for the political development of modern Japan, and that is the Shogun Period. It took place between 1192 and 1867. The Nijo Castle of Kyoto will be the best place to learn the very basics about the Shoguns, who ruled Japan (as in, having the real power to exercise) during the medieval times up to the Meiji Restoration.

The History of the Nijo Castle

It is through the lens of the Shogun period that one appreciates the Nijo Castle. This castle would mark the very beginning and the very end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which would also be the very last of the Shogun period, in Japan.

The Shoguns, meaning “the general,” were the national military rulers of Japan in the feudal times. In the 7 centuries that the Shoguns wielded real power, the Shoguns were the ones that ran the show with the Emperor of Japan serving merely nominal and ceremonial roles. The Shogun title was succeeded along the Shogun’s family line. There were three families of the Shoguns during the Shogunate period, two of which donned its name to that particular historical era: the Ashikaga Shogunate (1338-1573 A.D., in Kyoto) and Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868 A.D., in Edo). The first shogunate was named the Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333 A.D., in Kamakura), which was the name of its administrative capital. These shogunates were based in different cities, but the official seat of the emperor was always Kyoto.

The Nijo Castle was constructed in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa (Edo) Shogunate. The imperial visit by Emperor Go-Mizuno-o was a significant event in the history of the castle, as it resulted in an expansion of many key structures by the third Tokugawa Shogun, named Tokugawa Iemitsu. After the fifteenth Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, yielded his power to the Emperor in 1867, the Nijo Caste was an occasional imperial residence between 1884 and 1939 or so.

The Nijo Castle would be forever remembered for being the site where the Taiseihokan, meaning the restoration of imperial rule, was pronounced by the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The Nijo Castle remains the only surviving example of a fortified palace in Japan.

A Tour at Nijo Castle

I chose Nijo Castle as my first stop in Kyoto because getting there would require almost no planning. From the Pocket Hotel at Gojo Station, I simply took the metro to the Nijo station and walked over with Google Map directions. The entrance fee was ¥1,300.

I advise people touring the temples and castle of Kyoto to wear socks. I have been to a few sites that require one walking without shoes. The tour of the Nijo Castle takes you through the interiors of the Ninomaru-goten Palace. Shoes off as tourists walk around the many chambers inside.

The Ninomaru-goten Palace

The Ninomaru-goten Palace presents interesting historical perspectives that were socio-political, architectural and aesthetics all blended in the layout. The Ninomaru-goten Palace itself was the very testament to the Edo period, as Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who ended a 130-year civil war in Japan and began the Tokugawa Shogunate, built it as the shogunal residence whenever the Shogun made imperial visits in Kyoto. As said before, the Ninomaru-goten Palace was also where the last Shogun declared his final submission of power to the Emperor, effectively ending the Edo Shogunate (and the Shogunate period) in Japanese history.

Please note and respect that no photographs are allowed inside the Ninomaru-goten Palace. Although there are no photographs, I can share some interesting features with readers.

The Ninomaru-goten Palace features the significance of the interior décor of the rooms. There are six structures within the Ninomaru-goten Palace. Each of these structures served distinct purposes for the ruling Shogun.

The first feature of the palace is the Nightingale Corridor, purportedly built with a kind of wood that creaked like a nightingale singing when one walks on it. The nightingale corridor will lead you through the Tiger Room. This is where the guests of the Shogun were received. The guests could have been foreign dignitaries or the feudal lords of the daimyo. As the first entrance into the Shogun’s residence, the tiger room and its paintings on all the interiors are meant to impose a sense of authority and grandeur upon the visitor. The Shogun received his guest whilst sitting on a raised platform, facing south. All these customs were expressions of the Shogun’s actual ruling power during the Shogun period.

The artwork that are featured in each of these chambers are the prime examples of Japan’s Kano School of painters, dating 1626, when a major renovation took place in preparation of the Emperor’s visit. In the Tiger Room, for example, the tigers were painted by gathering the impressions from the paintings of Korea and China — as tigers were in fact not native in all of Japan.

Going forward, the tour will take you through some other beautiful chambers, such as the Pine Room, the Cherry Blossom Room, the Sitting Room and the Peony Room etc.

Having visited the Ninomaru-goten Palace, the rest of the touring would take you to the outside in the gardens, moats, watchtowers and a few significant gates of the compound.

The Nijo Castle was my first encounter with the premodern history and beauty of Kyoto. I wanted views of the autumn foliage in midst of historic structures. Nijo presented some very good opportunities of learning, as well as the appreciation of beautiful scenery. Perhaps I enjoyed walking in the garden space the most, and I will introduce some of the key features outside of the Palace.

The Higashi Ote-mon Gate (East Gate)

At the Higashi Ote-mon gate visitors enter into the world of the Shogun via the main gateway of the castle compound. The East Gate as it stands now was a renovated gate in the year of 1663 for a gate constructed in 1626, at which time it was built to welcome an Emperor’s visit by Emperor Go-Mizuno-o. There was, however, always an East Gate standing here as the main entrance to the Nijo Castle.

The East Gate’s status as the main entrance to Nijo Castle is indicated by its structural features and also the fact that there was a large open area just outside of this gate, perhaps meant to be a public plaza, beyond the moats.

Architecturally, the yagura, meaning the watchtower, on the second floor was not a structure built during the Emperor’s visit. It was considered not appropriate to have a higher structure above when the Emperor’s procession passed through this gate. But it was added after, with latticed windows that come with a hatch to drop boulders onto attackers, serving both offensive and defensive purposes.

The Honmaru Garden

The Honmaru Garden was reconstructed in 1896 with the explicit instructions of the Meiji Emperor, supervised from the top floor of the former Honmaru-goten Palace. It is said that the Emperor himself supervised the very kind of trees to be planted in this garden.

A visit of some depth will require at least 2 hours, but certainly allow about 20-30 minutes to consider the display of the chambers inside the Ninomaru-goten Palace.

Sources

Britannica, Samurai.

Descriptions on site at the Nijo Castle.

The Wikipedia on Kyoto.

Samurai-Archives.com, the Nijo Castle.

Worldhistory.org, Shogun.