Kokyo ( Imperial Palace)

Kokyo or Imperial Palace is former Edo castle. At first the Edo castle was constructed by Dokan Ohta the lord of Edo in 1457. It was located at same place as present imperial palace. Later, the first Shogun of Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa came to live in Edo castle and started to extend the Edo castle from 1603 when the Edo government officially began. At last the Edo government had been finished in 1868, and the Emperor Meiji began to live in the castle, then the Edo castle was renamed to Kokyo or Imperial palace.



Even now, several structures are remaining, especially most gates are standing just as it was standing in those days. But the main facilities of the castle, where shogun was living and many officer of Edo government were working, was lost by fires and the war. Shogun was living in east part of the castle, present East Garden is there and opened to public.


Most tourists visit Nijubashi the main gate of Imperial palace. Nijubashi means a double tiered bridge, original bridge was set up a scaffold doubly, because the moat is too deep to build a bridge. If you go to the left hand, there is Sakuradamon gate. Seven years before Meiji Restoration, an important person of Edo government lord Ii had been assassinated by some assassin belonging to the domains of Mito and Satsuma the enemies of Edo government. The case has been a beginning of Meiji Restoration. If you go to the right hand, you can see a keep called Nijuuyagura or Twofold keep. In Edo castle, there were about 20 keeps in those days. But only 3 keeps are remaining now. Other 2 keeps are standing inner part of Imperial Palace, so we cannot usually see it.


The ground of Imperial Place is about a million square meters. This area surrounded by moats is also biggest green zone in Tokyo. There are some ups and downs around Imperial palace. The view is full of variety and so magnificent. The east part is flat. A field with a lot of pine tree is spreading, and we can see several keeps over there. This area is rather historical show spot.

On the other hands, the view of west part is more dynamic than east part. The moats are very deep, and we can see the National Diet Building over there from in front of Hanzomon gate.
There are also many cherry trees at the north west part. Especially, Chidorigafuchi is the most famous cherry spot in Tokyo. Moreover rape blossoms also color a bank of the moat in yellow in early spring.