Kyoto - Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle was built in the early 1600's by the Tokugawa Shoguns, who use Edo (now called Tokyo) as the capital of their power. As the Emporer's power waned, the Shoguns increased in power. To show the Emporer their power, they built this castle in Kyoto, just down the street from the Imperial Palace as a vacation place for the Shoguns, primarily to remind the Emporer who the real boss was!

A picture of Will and me outside of the castle

Another side of the castle.
We went through the castle. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the inside, however. Most of the rooms were empty, with only signs vaguely explaining what used to be there or how the room was used. Two of the rooms had real-life models, one showing various nobles bowing to the Shogun and one with several Geisha serving one of the leaders. Those were really well done, but like I said, the rest of the place was empty.

The brochure said that many of the Ninja movies draw inspiration from this castle. This castle intentionally made the wood floors squeaky, so that an intruder could be detected. It was relatively loud with squeaks with hundreds of tourists going through the place. The other feature of the castle was concealed rooms where guards would hide during meetings and could quickly jump out into the room if trouble broke out.

Depiction of the grounds showing two moats protecting the area.

The outer moat...

and the inner moat...

Inner moat from on top of the fortress walls

And a view of several of the buildings from on top of the walls...