Friday, 13 May 2016 in more detail
Original posted LIVE here.
This morning we went just a few hundred metres from our apartment to visit Nijo Castle. This map shows the location of our apartment and this Castle is clearly shown to the west.
Nijo Castle (二条城, Nijōjō) was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). His grandson Iemitsu completed the castle's palace buildings 23 years later and further expanded the castle by adding a five story castle keep.
After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, Nijo Castle was used as an imperial palace for a while before being donated to the city and opened up to the public as a historic site. Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era, and the castle was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994.
Nijo Castle can be divided into three areas: the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and some gardens that encircle the Honmaru and Ninomaru. The entire castle grounds and the Honmaru are surrounded by stone walls and moats.
I hired the english language audio guide which helped me appreciate the history and background. More detail here.
The Ninomaru Palace served as the residence and office of the shogun during his visits to Kyoto. Surviving in its original form, the palace consists of multiple separate buildings that are connected with each other by corridors with so called nightingale floors, as they squeak when stepped upon as a security measure against intruders. The palace rooms are tatami mat covered and feature elegantly decorated ceilings and beautifully painted sliding doors (fusuma).
Unfortunately no photos could be taken inside but the art works were amazing. I saw a bit of the movie The Last Samurai (with Tom Cruise) the other night and the scene where he meets the Emperor appears to have been filmed in the main room of this Palace. I could be wrong of course, as I am no expert.
Some local high school students and their teacher stopped to talk to us and asked if they could ask us some questions as part of an assignment. They asked where we were from and if this was our first visit to Kyoto, plus where else in Japan we planned to or had visited. At the end they asked if they could take their photo with us and we asked to take one too, which is below . . . .
We spent over an hour exploring the gardens . . . .
We climbed to the top of the nearby moat wall where a five story keep once stood before being destroyed by lightning. Here we can see back towards our apartment building . . .
Check back later for more updates on our adventures today . . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment