In this paper, the author discuss the change of garden use in Kyoto by retired Emperors and Emperors, from the late Kamakura period to the early Nanboku-cho period. The result of the main study is as follows. The contents of garden use can be divided four period. The first period was that time when the Gardens of Toba-dono and Kameyama-dono prospered. The second period was that the Garden of Kitayama-tei was a time which had begun to prosper. The third period was when the Garden of Kitayama-tei which prospered declined. In the fourth period, the gardens mainly had been used for the villas of court nobles until the late Kamakura period, but in the Nanboku-cho period, a style of the Zen gardens of Tenryu and Saiho Temples had begun to be utilized. There is cause of this change in the following factor. Tenryu Temple built as a Zen temple was designated as a temple exclusively for the emperor’s family, and all of the gardens of the villas went into ruin. The study results indicate that even though the time changed into the Nanboku-cho period from Kamakura period, retired Emperors and Emperors still enjoyed boating, appreciating gardens and listening to Japanese court music in the Zen gardens.
