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    Nijo Castle

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    heloisevaujour
    Nijo Castle was built in 1620 in Kyoto, Japan to host the emperor during visits. It has both military and political functions, with thick stone walls and wooden beam structures. Though originally used temporarily as a prefectural center when political power shifted to the Shogun, the imperial pavilion remains preserved today as it was beautifully decorated for the emperor. The layout focuses on flowing movement of inhabitants rather than symmetry, with waiting rooms of different decorations to welcome high-ranking visitors. The main room displays power through unusually large wooden beams, a writing desk in an alcove window, a tokonoma for flowers or scrolls, and separating the authority figure seated higher on a special tatami from subjects.

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    Nijo Castle

    Uploaded by

    heloisevaujour
    5 views1 page
    Nijo Castle was built in 1620 in Kyoto, Japan to host the emperor during visits. It has both military and political functions, with thick stone walls and wooden beam structures. Though originally used temporarily as a prefectural center when political power shifted to the Shogun, the imperial pavilion remains preserved today as it was beautifully decorated for the emperor. The layout focuses on flowing movement of inhabitants rather than symmetry, with waiting rooms of different decorations to welcome high-ranking visitors. The main room displays power through unusually large wooden beams, a writing desk in an alcove window, a tokonoma for flowers or scrolls, and separating the authority figure seated higher on a special tatami from subjects.

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    Nijo castle

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    Nijo Castle was built in 1620 in Kyoto, Japan to host the emperor during visits. It has both military and political functions, with thick stone walls and wooden beam structures. Though originally used temporarily as a prefectural center when political power shifted to the Shogun, the imperial pavilion remains preserved today as it was beautifully decorated for the emperor. The layout focuses on flowing movement of inhabitants rather than symmetry, with waiting rooms of different decorations to welcome high-ranking visitors. The main room displays power through unusually large wooden beams, a writing desk in an alcove window, a tokonoma for flowers or scrolls, and separating the authority figure seated higher on a special tatami from subjects.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    5 views1 page

    Nijo Castle

    Uploaded by

    heloisevaujour
    Nijo Castle was built in 1620 in Kyoto, Japan to host the emperor during visits. It has both military and political functions, with thick stone walls and wooden beam structures. Though originally used temporarily as a prefectural center when political power shifted to the Shogun, the imperial pavilion remains preserved today as it was beautifully decorated for the emperor. The layout focuses on flowing movement of inhabitants rather than symmetry, with waiting rooms of different decorations to welcome high-ranking visitors. The main room displays power through unusually large wooden beams, a writing desk in an alcove window, a tokonoma for flowers or scrolls, and separating the authority figure seated higher on a special tatami from subjects.

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    NIJO CASTLE :

    This castle did not exist during the Heian period; for the planning of castles in cities ap-
    peared during the Medieval age. Its creation happened to unite the Northen boroughs,
    of the upper class with the warriors and the nobles; and the Southern boroughs in which
    gathered the rest of the population. Therefore, this castle was built to host the emperor du-
    ring a visit in the Edo period, in 1620. It used to have a military part, where a toward would
    gard the surroundings, but it was unfortunately destroyed by lightning. It is still shaped as a
    military complex as well as a political one. Indeed, it has a large defense wall made of thick
    stones, barely carved and a wooden structure roof. The only access is through a large woo-
    den door decorated with golden pieces of metal.
    When the political power shifts towards the Shogun, this castle will temporarely be used as
    a prefectural center but still in the maintenance of the Imperial family.
    That is probably the reason why the imperial pavillion is still preserved today. Like said be-
    fore it was built to host the Emperor when coming to Kyoto, so it had to be beautifully deco-
    rated ( black laquer beams, wooden carvings, Chrysantheme flowers wich was the emblem
    of the Imperial family) even if the structure is quite simple. The gable roof is of the Karafasu
    style ( Chinese style or what the Japanese thought of what the Chinese was )

    What changes in the plan of this building is that the carpenters will no be looking for the
    symmetry in the plan of the building but how to echo the flow of the inhabitants of the
    palace. This translates in the progressive appearance of the rooms throught your deambula-
    tion. The rooms are used as waiting rooms for the most highly ranked visitors wich different
    decorations for each one of them ( tigers, seasons.. ) The palace is also composed of two
    rooms to welcome the visitors for the official visit to the Shogun or the Emperor. One of
    these rooms, the main one was used when the Shogun gave back the power to the Imperial
    family during the 19th century.

    What is the most striking in this main room is the way that power, authority is being trans-
    lated in Japanese standards. Firstly we can see that the beam in the structure are surpri-
    singly and unecessary big. There is a few other elements that we will progressively found
    in the all political strongholds for it will become the standards of display of authorithy in
    Japan.
    Firstly there is the writting desk that is incorporated in an alcove window, there is also the
    tokonoma where it was used to exposed flowers or scrolls, 4 doors behind which the Empe-
    ror usually had a room in wich he could get change or rest ( with time the use of this room
    will fade away but the 4 doors will be kept ) and a set of shelves in the back of the room on
    the right of the tokonoma.
    Finally, we can see that the room is seperated in two levels, where the figure of authority is
    elevated from his subjects and seated on a special tatami.

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