Nijo Castle
We spend a good part of the day at Nijo Castle. The castle was built in 1603 and was the Kyoto residence of the first Takugawa Shogun. The first shogun had moved the capitol from Kyoto to Tokyo (Edo) when the shogunate seized power from the emperor. The emperor remained as a figurehead; the shogun was the true power in Japan at the time. Although he lived in Tokyo he maintained this residence in Kyoto. The building is huge and impressive and fortified with high stone walls, moats and thick gates. The site covers 275,000 meters and the buildings are 7,300 square meters.
The buildings contain mostly very large rooms that were used for ceremonial functions and offices for various ministers. All of the rooms are decorated with stunningly beautiful murals and the ceilings with inlaid tiles. Many of the paintings have gold leaf imbedded in them. They cast a luminous glow over the room. There are nearly a thousand works of art that belong to the castle but only a small number are on display. The art work is very impressive. Unfortunately they don’t allow photos so we couldn’t shoot any pictures. The floors are called nightingale floors and squeak as you walk on them (without your shoes, of course.) They were deliberately designed this way so intruders could not sneak into the castle.
The castle is surrounded by beautiful gardens. Many areas have ponds, waterfalls or other water features. Rocks and stone lanterns are placed artfully around. Many of the trees are trained into interesting shapes.
The castle and gardens is a UNESCO world heritage site.
After walking all morning we went to have lunch at the Kyoto Kukusai Hotel across the street from the castle, a very elegant place.
We took a bus from Nijo Castle to one of the main shopping districts on Shijo Dori (Shijo Street.) There are major Japanese department stores here and also places like Brooks Brothers, Armani, and many designer places. Just behind the main street is the Nashiki Market. This is source for most of the restaurants in Kyoto and they have fabulous looking meat, fish and produce all looking like it just came from the farm or out of the sea. It was all I could do to keep from buying lots of stuff, but given the limits on our kitchen here I passed most of it by. We plan to go back though. The market also has lots of restaurants surrounding it including one that claims it was begun in 1475. Who am I to doubt this? It’s Zagat rated. We may go there for dinner.
The market also has a section with shops selling clothing, cosmetics, shoes and other consumer goods. One shop sold only paper fans that were beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment