Kyoto Imperial Palace
We just love
the imperial palace with its vast and impressive park. The palace is located in
central Kyoto and is only a short bus or subway ride from Kyoto station, or
about a 40min walk. We have visited the imperial palace on a number of
occasions previously, as it’s so central and in a convenient location.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the residence for Japan’s Imperial Family until 1868, after which the emperor and capital were moved to Tokyo. The imperial palace itself is located in the centre of the park, with the palace, halls and its gardens being surround by strikingly high long walls with several impressive gates. The current Imperial Palace was actually constructed in 1855 after it burnt down!
Previously
you could only enter the inner palace grounds and gardens by advanced booking
on a guided tour, but now as we did last year you can enter and explore the
ground and gardens without a tour guide, though none of the buildings can be
entered.
Although we
had visited the Imperial Palace Park before, we had not entered the palace gardens.
Last year when we visited, we soon realised that an advanced booking on a tour
guide was no longer needed, and so we jumped at the chance and took advantage
of this. It turned out to be a real bonus to our trip, as the Imperial Palace’s
inner grounds and gardens are absolutely fantastic.
From there we walked around the courtyard to the western side of the palace inner grounds where we were guided by the paths to one of the Palaces gardens, the Oikeniwa Garden. We walked through a narrow opening and the garden just hit us, with its pond, bridges, rocks and pine trees. The layout of the garden is just superb and was a pleasure to be in, although it was not a large garden it was hard to capture the whole splendour of the garden in just one photo, as it had many angles and viewpoints.
From this garden we walked straight into the next, called the Gonaitei Garden. This garden was as impressive as the previous although not as big, it consisted of a pond like stream with bridges, with large rocks, pine trees and acers. Also, what we found as impressive were large Japanese white pines, which are not commonly seen as big.
Please find our other Kyoto articles in the 'Kyoto' section of the website.
The palace park grounds are 1300 meter long and 700 meter wide and serves as a recreational space for residents and tourists. There are vast broad gravel paths and large expanses of lawn areas and tree groves and ponds. (Large lawned areas are not so common to see in Japan).
We entered the inner grounds through one of the eastern gates were all visitors are met by security all bags had to be checked then everyone was given a number to wear, we guessed this was because so they knew how many people were in the inner grounds. Like a lot of gardens there was a directional route set out in the inner grounds and gardens which guided us down past the imposing black pine tree’s to the southern part of the grounds, to where the impressive Shishin-den Hall is located. In front of the hall is a large courtyard which is surrounded by three impressive large traditional walls, with the round upright poles being painted in red and the inset panels being white with each side having a gate. You really get a sense of what it must have been like back in the day!
From the garden we were then guided back past some more imposing pine trees to the entrance at the western gate where we had initially come in. It was a privilege to see such gardens in all their splendour especially with the beautiful autumn colours.
