them from the surrounding rice fields and farmers. These three areas are known as the Shimo no Ochaya (lower tea house), Naka no Ochaya (middle tea house), and Kami no Ochaya (upper tea house). Each contains one or two small sukiya -style pavilions. The upper garden is dominated by an artificial lake called Yokuryu-chi (Pond of the Bathing Dragon), overlooked by the Rin’untei (Pavilion Next to the Clouds). The two larger islands in the lake are linked by three bridges made of wood, earth, and stone respectively. The Kyusuitei (Distant Pavilion) located on one of the islands is the only original structure. The villa in the middle garden was originally built for Go-Mizunoo’s eighth daughter, Genyo. After his death she became a nun and converted it into a temple called Rinkyu-ji. In 1885 this became part of Shugakuin Imperial Villa proper.
Forming an extensive, panoramic kaiyushiki teien (stroll garden), Shugakuin Imperial Villa has an equally spectacular backdrop. The design makes full use of shakkei (borrowed scenery), a Japanese landscape gardening technique that involves visually incorporating distant elements from the surrounding landscape while screening the immediate neighborhood from view. Mountains, forests, rice fields, and waterfalls are thus drawn into an extraordinarily beautiful and somewhat surreal microcosm.
Kyoto Imperial Palace
LOCATION KAMIGYO-KU
ESTABLISHED IN 1331
BUILT FOR EMPEROR KOGON
Kyoto was the nominal capital of Japan for over a thousand years, but during much of that time effective power lay elsewhere. While the Imperial family lived in secluded irrelevance in their Kyoto palace, a series of samurai warlords fought for dominance over the nation. The Edo Period (1603–1868) saw Japan reunified in the wake of a century of devastating civil wars, with a military regime (the Tokugawa Shogunate) taking control and imposing peace, stability, and unity from their base in Edo, a coastal city located far to the east of Kyoto. The Emperor was finally restored to power in 1868, and the nation’s capital officially relocated from Kyoto to Edo—the latter city was then renamed Tokyo. In 1869 the Imperial family moved to their new home in Tokyo, and many of the residences within the grounds of the old Imperial Palace (now known as the Kyoto Gosho) were demolished, but in 1877 Emperor Meiji (1852–1912) decreed that the remainder be preserved.
The original Imperial Palace, built for the founding of Heian-kyo in 794, was located southwest of the current location. The current palace location was originally one of several satodairi (temporary palaces) located throughout the city, and was first designated as the official palace in 1331 by Emperor Kogon (1313–64). The buildings themselves have been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, eight times during the Edo period alone, of which six were due to fire. Most of the current buildings date from 1855.
Enclosed by a thick clay wall, the palace grounds contain an array of independent structures that display the full range of Kyoto’s traditional architectural styles. Seiryoden, the Imperial residence, and Shishinden, the ceremonial hall, are both built in the shinden style, with the shoin style represented
