Nijō Castle

In front of you is the Higashi Ōtemon, the great east gate of Nijō Castle. This was never a fortress built to withstand sieges. It was something more refined: the residence of the Tokugawa shoguns whenever they came to Kyoto, the emperor’s city.

1The start of a dynasty

In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the lords of western Japan to help build it, and in March 1603, freshly appointed shogun, he moved in. His grandson Iemitsu enlarged it to receive Emperor Go-Mizunoo, who stayed here for five days in 1626. For that visit, the gate in front of you was cut down to a single storey: nobody was allowed to look down on the emperor. The tower was rebuilt afterwards.

2And the end

In 1750 lightning set fire to the main keep, which was never rebuilt. But the decisive moment came in October 1867. In the Ninomaru Palace, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, announced that he was returning power to the emperor. Two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule ended in the same castle where it had begun.

After the Meiji Restoration, Nijō passed to the Imperial Household, which made it an imperial villa in 1884. In 1939 it was given to the city, and since 1994 it has been part of a World Heritage Site.

The floors of the Ninomaru Palace “sing” like nightingales when you walk on them; the idea that they were built to give away intruders is a popular explanation, not a proven fact.

3What to look for

• The black iron fittings on the doors, with dome-shaped studs.
• The stone wall, built without mortar from blocks fitted by hand.
• The watchtower on the south-east corner, visible along the moat.