Nijo castle was built in the mid 1600's and was built by the help of Daimyo's (feudal lords) from all over western Japan. This was the main residence of the Shogun, who's main residence was in Edo (modern day Tokyo). Parts of the castle have burned down before but there is still much to see. The main attraction is the very large palace in the middle.
The castle was just a short walk from Naomi's friends house so we were there in no time! Heres a few shots from outside the walls. In one you can see a gate no longer used and where a bridge used to be.
Next is the shot of the main gate. After is a picture of an old guard house that had some mannequins inside, which looked a bit creepy actually.
Here is the gate into the main area containing Ninomaru palace. The gate had some incredible detail carved on it. You can see cranes, tigers, dragons etc.
Through the gate is Ninomaru palace. It is made up of 5 single floor buildings. Depending on how high up on the totem pole you were is how far into the palace you would get to go. Lower ranking people were greeted at the first area and stayed there. The higher in status you are the farther into the palace you were able to go.
By far the coolest thing here is the Nightingale floors. All the hallways are wood and whenever you take a step they make a chirping sound, like a bird. This place was packed with tourists, so it constantly sounded like a flock of birds flying around (not as annoying as you would think).
You were not aloud to take pictures inside..so I will do my best to tell you about it anyway. I will post some pictures from the internet as well.
In all the main rooms the walls have beautiful paintings, mostly all done from famous artists of the time, that cover the entire room's walls. Lots of gold leaf is used in these usually too. Every room had different types. Some of cranes, some of peacocks and tigers etc. Here is one image I managed to find on the net. A good example of what each room looked like.
In one room they had a bunch of mannequins dressed up as the visiting Daiymo's with the Shogun sitting in the back (sitting higher than everyone else of course, to show his status). Found a picture of this exact scene on the net!
The ceiling of the whole place to is decorated throughout with various patterns and designs. Every room is different. Again, from the net.
This is a very big place, and takes a good while to walk through and see everything. I really enjoyed it, but still sad you can't take pictures. Even online those were the only 3 if the inside I could find.
Outside we headed towards the garden. Unlike Hikone castle, you are very limited to the path you can walk here. Basically you just walk around the palace, you cant go down any of the paths to see more. But you still get a nice view. Here is a few shots.
After you follow the path, which leads to the back of Ninomaru palace, you go through a small gate and end up at Honmaru palace. This palace at one time time had 55 buildings connected to it and also a 5 story castle keep in the center. The keep was struck by lightning in 1750 and burned down. More of the palace was destroyed by a city wide fire in the 1788. In the late 1800's it was moved to its current location and is now 4 large buildings. Here is some various shots of it, starting with the main gate. You could not go inside (not sure if sometimes you can or not).
Here is another garden on the western side of the castle. The building you see is a tea house.
That about wrapped up this castle visit. Personally I think Hikone was better, but the palace here was certainly a treat. Here is a shot of a guard tower on the way out.
Across the road I found a katana store. They had a few old ones for sale too but mostly modern made (real though, not machine made).
After this we headed over to the old Imperial Palace, although we stopped for an interesting little detour. That will be in the next update.
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