The Changes Undergone by Honmaru Garden in Nijo Castle

Abstract

Honmaru Palace was originally constructed in the Kan'ei Era (1624-1644).
After it was destroyed by fire, it was reconstructed as the residence of the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu in the closing days of the Tokugawa regime, but later it was removed. The present structure, originally built as the residence of Prince Katsura, was transferred piece by piece from its original location in Kyoto Imperial Palace in 1894. Unlike the history of Honmaru Palace, little has been known about the historical changes undergone by Honmaru Garden in front of it. On the occasion of the recent repair of the palace, however, new materials relevant to its transfer in 1894 were discovered, providing new information on the history of Honmaru Garden. These materials, coupled with drawings in the Kan'ei Era and an old photograph of the residence of Yoshinobu, help to make a study of the historical changes undergone by Honmaru Garden from the Kan'ei Era to the present.It still remains unknown whether Honmaru Garden existed in the Kan'ei Era or not, for lack of appropriate materials concerning the garden during the era. But the photograph of the Honmaru Palace as the residence of Yoshinobu shows that the structure had a tea-ceremony house with a few deciduoustrees, a stone lantern and a lattice fence in its front, that there was a pine tree near the corridor of the residence and that an open space probably covered with grass or moss spread before the residence. When the residence of Prince Katsura was transferred in 1894, a main garden was laid out at Honmaru Palace. In 1895, however, under the order of Emperor Meiji the main garden was remodeled into a garden with an artificial hill, which is still in existence today.