The shogun's fortified palace, with floors that sing under your feet, and the emperors' old home in a wide gravel park a short ride north.
Nijo castle was built from 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun: a statement of military power planted a short walk from the emperor's court.
Its Ninomaru palace is a chain of low wooden halls painted with tigers, pines and cranes on gold. The corridors are laid with "nightingale floors" that chirp with every step, so nobody could creep up unheard.
The castle also saw the end of the shoguns: in 1867 the last of them announced here that he was handing power back to the emperor.
A short ride north, the Kyoto Imperial Palace sits in the broad Kyoto Gyoen park. The emperors lived here until the capital moved to Tokyo; the present buildings date from 1855, and the grounds are free to visit.
Morning in the painted halls, afternoon in the park.
Enter the castle through its carved and gilded Chinese-style gate.
Shoes off, and walk the corridors past the audience halls. Listen to the floor as much as you look at the walls.
Circle the pond garden, then cross the inner moat and climb the old keep's stone base for a view over the grounds.
Take the subway or a bus north to Kyoto Gyoen, a gravel and pine park where locals cycle, jog and picnic.
Walk the open route through the Imperial Palace grounds to the white-gravelled court of the Shishinden, the hall of enthronements.
Nijojo-mae station on the Tozai subway line is at the castle gate. For the palace, use Imadegawa or Marutamachi on the Karasuma line.
Allow about two hours at the castle and an hour or more in the palace grounds. Check closure days before you go.
No photography inside the Ninomaru halls. Keep to the marked route in the palace grounds.
Kyoto practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
