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Nijo-jo Review

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Fodor's Japan, 19th Edition

Fodor's Exploring Japan, 6th Edition

Nijo-jo

Fodor's Review:

Nijo Castle was the local Kyoto address for the Tokugawa shogunate. Dominating central Kyoto with its towering walls and moat, the castle is an intrusion, both politically and artistically. The man who built the castle in 1603, Ieyasu Tokugawa, the founder of the shogunate, did so to emphasize that political power had been completely removed from the emperor and that he alone determined the destiny of Japan. Accordingly, Tokugawa built and decorated his castle with such ostentation as to make the populace cower in the face of his wealth and power.

Ieyasu Tokugawa had risen to power through skillful political maneuvers and treachery. His military might was unassailable, and that's probably why his Kyoto castle had relatively modest exterior defenses. However, as he well knew, defense against treachery is never certain. The interior of the castle was built with that in mind. Each building had concealed rooms where bodyguards could maintain a watchful eye for potential assassins, and the corridors had built-in "nightingale" floors, so no one could walk in the building without making noise. Rooms were locked only from the inside; thus, no one from the outer rooms could gain access to the inner rooms without being admitted by someone within. The outer rooms were kept for visitors of low rank and were adorned with garish paintings that were meant to dazzle them. The inner rooms were for the important lords, whom the shogun would impress with the refined, tasteful paintings of the Kano school.

The opulence and grandeur of the castle were a snub to the emperor. They relegated the emperor and his palace to insignificance, and the Tokugawa family even appointed a governor to manage the emperor and the imperial family. The Tokugawa shoguns were rarely in Kyoto. Ieyasu stayed in the castle three times; the second shogun stayed twice, including the time in 1626 when Emperor Gomizuno-o was granted an audience. After that, for the next 224 years, no Tokugawa shogun visited Kyoto, and the castle started to fall into disrepair. Only when the Tokugawa shogunate was under pressure from a failing economy, and international pressure to open Japan to trade, did the 14th shogun, Iemochi Tokugawa (1846-66), come to Kyoto to confer with the emperor. The emperor told the shogun to rid Japan of foreigners, but Iemochi did not have the strength. As the shogunates power continued to wane, the 15th and last shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa (1837-1913), spent most of his time in Nijo-jo. Here he resigned, and the imperial decree was issued that abolished the shogunate after 264 years of rule. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Nijo-jo became the Kyoto prefectural office until 1884; during that time it suffered from acts of vandalism. Since 1939 the castle has belonged to the city of Kyoto, and considerable restoration has taken place.

You enter the castle through the impressive Kara-mon (Chinese Gate). Notice that you must turn right and left at sharp angles to make this entrance designed to slow the advance of any attacker. From the Kara-mon, the carriageway leads to the Ni-no-maru Goten (Second Inner Palace), whose five buildings are divided into many chambers. The outer buildings were for visits by men of lowly rank, the inner ones (on higher levels) for those of higher rank. The most notable room, the Ohiroma (Great Hall), is easy to recognize. In the room costumed figures reconstruct the occasion when the last Tokugawa shogun returned the power of government to the emperor in the late 1860s. This spacious hall was where, in the early 17th century, the shogun would sit on a raised throne to greet important visitors seated below him. The sliding screens of this room have magnificent paintings of forest scenes.

Also impressive is the garden, created by landscape designer Kobori Enshu shortly before Emperor Gomizuno-o's visit in 1626. Notice the crane-and-tortoise islands flanking the center island (called the Land of Paradise). The symbolic meaning is clear: strength and longevity. The garden was originally designed with no deciduous trees, for the shogun did not wish to be reminded of the transitory nature of life by autumn's falling leaves. To reach the castle, take the bus or subway to Nijo-jo-mae.

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