Nijō Castle

It would be difficult to imagine a Kyoto trip without going to Nijō Castle, one of 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto.  It is easy to get to and once in the castle, there is much to see. There are many people who visit the site, but there is plenty of space so that it does not get overly crowded.

Background:

After Tokugawa Ieyasu won a great victory at the Battle of Sekigahara and became shogun, he built Nijō Castle in Kyoto as headquarters for his deputy and as a Kyoto residence for the Tokugawa shoguns.  Ieyasu’s seat of government was in Edo; however, the Imperial Court and Imperial Palace were in Kyoto. The Tokugawa shogunate wanted to keep close tabs on the nobility, so its presence was necessary in Kyoto. Nijō Castle was eventually finished in 1626 by Ieyasu’s grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu.

One of the methods the Tokugawa controlled various factions in Japan was to financially weaken them.  When Tokugawa Ieyasu began building Nijō Castle, he ordered all daimyō, feudal lords, to contribute to the costs of the castle.

In the building of Nijō Castle parts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Fushimi Castle, namely the main tower and the karamon, were used.

The Tokugawa regime lasted 250 years because it maintained a very tight control over Japan.  One way of doing this was to cement relations with the imperial family. Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu’s son, arranged for his daughter, Masako, to become one of the emperor’s consorts. In 1620, Masako left Nijō Castle with an enormous retinue to join Emperor Go-Mizunoo.  Later Go-Mizunoo would visit Nijō Castle at the invitation of retired shogun Hidetada and his son, Shogun Iemitsu. For the emperor’s visit, the castle was expanded to its current size and the keep tower, the Gyoko-goten Palace for the Emperor, and the Honmaru–goten Palace were constructed.

In decorating Nijō Castle, the Tokugawa shogunate relied heavily on the Kanō school. The Kanō school (Kanō-ha) predominated in painting from the Momoyama Period (1573-1600) until the end of the Edo Period. It was known for its gilded partition paintings of rich landscapes, flowers, birds and trees, reflecting Chinese influence. The school’s clients were mainly the nobility, shoguns, and emperors. The Kanō school’s ability to align with the politically powerful was a key to its survival, aside from its great artists. Kanō Naganobu (1577-1654) followed Tokugawa Ieyasu to Edo and served the Tokugawa shogunate under the title goyō eshi, the shogun’s painter-in-residence.

The greatest Kanō painter of the Edo period was Kanō Tan’yu (1602–1674), who was named the shogun’s painter-in-residence at the age of fifteen. He decorated many of the most important castles, including Nijō Castle in Kyoto and painted a series of scrolls depicting Tokugawa Ieyasu.

In the 1860s, as the fortunes of the Tokugawa regime declined, an alliance was formed to end the Tokugawa shogunate and restore the emperor. A moderate proposal was offered for Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu would resign, but preside over a new national governing council composed of various daimyō. Yoshinobu gathered a group of advisors at Nijō Castle where he decided resignation would be best.

At Nijō Castle, on November 9, 1867, Yoshinobu tendered his resignation to the Emperor, formally returning governing power to the Emperor, thus ending the Tokugawa shogunate de jure. This was start of the Meiji Restoration, where political power was restored to the emperor.

After the Meiji Restoration, Nijō Castle became an Imperial Villa. In 1915, after the enthronement of the Taisho Emperor, a banquet was held for Imperial officials, foreign dignitaries, and the Prime Minister at Nijō Castle. Of the new construction for the festivities, only the Minami-mon (South Gate) was not later dismantled.

In 1939 the City of Kyoto became the owners of the castle and the city opened the castle to the public.

Features:

First of all, Nijō Castle was designed as a fortress. This is very evident with the moat surrounding the outer structure and the heavy stone walls in two concentric rings. It was built at the end of Sengoku Jidai, a time of almost constant warfare in Japan for almost 150 years.

Within the fortified walls is Ninomaru Palace (Ninomaru Gōten). It has five separate buildings. Besides military, Nijō Castle was also a means of social control. Ninomaru Palace was meant to awe the visitors with its lavish displays of wealth – gold leaf, elaborate wood carvings, decorated walls and doors by artists of the Kanō school. It also showed people their place in the social hierarchy; low-ranking visitors were received in the outer regions, whereas high-ranking visitors were allowed to go to the inner chambers.  The wood used was the strong Hinoki cypress, a dark reddish-brown wood native to Japan, which is seen in many structures requiring great strength. As a further intimidating factor, bodyguards were not concealed but were readily seen.

The private quarters of the shogun feature the “nightingale floors” (uguisubari) in the corridors. When one walks on these floors, a pleasant bird-like squeak is heard.  It actually was used to alert the occupants for anyone walking the halls to prevent sneak attacks in the night.

Honmaru Palace (Honmaru Goten) consists of four parts with the architectural style of the late Edo Period. The original structures were replaced by those we see today between 1893 and 1894.

Nijō Castle has several gardens and groves of cherry and plum trees and ponds.