Today, there is an area for the ex-emperor's palace at the south-east side of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The ex-emperor had been accustomed to live in this site untill 1868 A.D., when the capital was trancefered to Tokyo from Kyoto. In 1603 A.D., TOKUGAWA-Ieyasu was appointed to the Shogun and first he built the ex-emperor's palace for the Emperor "Goyozei". Since this time, the Tokugawa Shogunate built some palaces for each ex-emperor. These were built beside the north or south of the Imperial Palace too and at the most prosperous period, there were 4 dalaces for 3 ex-emperors and one ex-empress around the Kyoto Imperial Palace in the same time. In the Edo era more than 20 palaces were built. These palaces, in this era, were built by the same style with traditional residences of cort nobles, but the palace, built in 1790 A.D., was designed in the referenced style to the palace in the Heian era (9.c.-12.c.), when the Kyoto Imperial Palace was built for the first time. This paper presents the outline of the history of the ex-emperors' palaces, built by the Tokugawa Shogunate from the beginning of the 17.c. to the half of the 19.c.
