Ninomaru Palace
Nijo Castle is an important UNESCO World heritage site in Kyoto, although the appellation is losing some of its luster, since that body seems to be giving out that honor like candy these days. Nevertheless, the castle is well worth seeing, and easy to get to, located in central Kyoto. Important aspects of the castle include the Ninomaru Palace and Gardens.
Moat at Ninjo Castle
The castle was originally built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogan, Ieyasu. Additional buildings, constructed in the 16th century, were moved here from Fushimi Castle. Nijo Castle is considered one of the finer examples of Edo period and Momoyama culture in Japan.
The sprawling Ninomaru Palace will be your first stop, with its 33 rooms, 800 tatami mats, and an overall area of 3,300 square meters. The highlight of the castle is here, in the form of exquisite golden paintings made by Kano school painters such as Kano Naonobu and Kano Tanyo. They are superlative example of Japanese painting. They, however, are reproductions, the originals being housed in the 400th Anniversary Gallery within the eastern wall of Nijo Castle. The Gallery is open sporadically, as there are four 60 days exhibitions each year, and the gallery is closed every Wednesday, even when an exhibition is on. Despite the fact that the palace paintings are reproductions, they do give the visitor a sense of period life in the palace, and may be the closest you’ll ever get to the real thing. There were originally more than 3,000 originals in the palace. 954 of them were designated as important Japanese properties in 1982, and have been undergoing the reproduction process since that time.
Ninimaru Garden
The Ninomaru Garden provides a beautiful, atmospheric walk, and includes nice scenes of the Honmaru Palace moat and walls. The palace and environs can easily be seen in a 1.5 hour visit.
Nijo Castle
541 Nijojo-cho, Nijo-dori Horikawa-nishi-iru
Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Tel: 075-841-0096
461-1155
Open 9:00-4:00, daily except Tuesdays in July and August, and December 26-January 4
Take bus 9, or Tozai subway line to Nijo-jo Mae
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