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The imperial villa in Katsura, Kyoto （Katsura Rikyu/桂離宮）

 

Katsura Rikyu is one of the villas that Japanese government possesses as properties for the imperial family. That said, it is quite rare that the family including the Emperor visits this villa currently since it is based mainly on the cultural aspects to maintain and preserve the site to this day.

The imperial status
This villa was built as a villa for an imperial family member called Hachijo-no-miya in early Edo period. The family started with prince Tomohito as the first patriarch, who was a grandson of the 106th Emperor Ougi-machi. He wasn’t given chances to play major roles in the imperial court and politics despite his royal high status but he was said to be a genius in academics and gardening. Instead of his hope to take part in the politics, he decided to build his own villa as a synthesis of his talents having well-balanced huge garden.

However, he died before he could complete the construction. His son, prince Tomotada took over the family but he was just a child that time. In addition, Tokugawa Shogunate minimized financial allocations to the imperial family members to get rid of their influence onto the politics; Hachijo-no-miya wasn’t an exception. Young Tomotada suffered from insufficient finance to keep holding his royal status so this villa was left devastated until he matured. After he married, he was backed up from his wife’s family: Maeda family of Kaga district, one of the richest Samurai lords or Daimyo, and finally he was able to complete the construction inheriting his father Tomohito’s spirit. A baton relay between a father and a son resulted in this villa.

Hachijo-no-miya family (changed the name to Katsura-no-miya later) became extinct in 1881 because the last matriarch died without having a heir and this villa was taken over to the Emperor in Meiji period. Nowadays, the imperial household agency or Kunai-cho holds daily maintenance in this villa and it is open to public (with some restricted areas). Multilingual guide is available here.  

Outlook of the villa
80 percent of the villa’s entire premises are a big strolling garden which is the largest in Japan while the rest of 20 percent is comprised of the main residence and huts. The garden has ponds and streams and people with high status will be on a small board to go around.

The garden is especially designed for a tea ceremony and the moon. Firstly, most of the buildings in the villa are huts for a tea ceremony and owners of this villa in history picked the hut to rest based on seasons; the villa has huts for each season (spring, summer, autumn and winter). i.e., when it was in Spring, they went to a hut for Spring and enjoyed the ceremony, etc. For the moon, height of the villa’s buildings are adjusted to not block people from watching the moon at night from everywhere in the villa. Lanterns are located on the ground so that visitors can see their step at night as well (people often visit there at night for the moon). 



ラベル:
場所: 日本、〒615-8014 京都府京都市西京区桂御園 桂離宮

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