Imperial Palace East National Gardens – #shorts #travel #japan #tokyo #garden #bamboo #koi #ancient
One of the places I visited in Tokyo was the Imperial Palace East National Gardens which are open to the public for free. This place was massive, it was so big that my family and I unfortunately did not have time to visit all of it. I must also say that this video doesn’t do this place justice, because it was truly much cooler in person especially due to all the moats and very high rock walls that would have prevented intruders a long time ago.
The first building you see (in the 2nd clip) is Doshin Bansho Guardhouse which is one of three that survived from the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867). It was manned by low-ranking samurai who checked visitors to the castle, and kept watch over the retinues of the feudal lords as they waited for their masters to return. There are three different types of crests on the roof tiles: the triple hollyhock design (family crest of the Tokugawa), the Imperial chrystanthemum crests, and the whorl of three commas of the mitsudomae (which dates back to the end of the Heian period (794-1185) and was used to ward off fires, since it represents water).
The second building you see (in the 3rd clip) is the Hyakunin Bansho Guardhouse which is the largest of the three guardhouses that have survived from the Edo period (1603-1867). This guardhouse controlled access to the honmaru main coupound of Edo castle. The name means “100-Man Guardhouse.” It’s 45 meters long and used to be manned day and night by four shifts of samurai, each consisting of 100 low-ranking doshin samurai and 20 higher-ranking yoriki samurai.
The third building you see (after the clip with the koi fish) is the Suwa no Chaya Teahouse which was built by order of Emperor Meiji in 1912, in the Fukiage Gardens in the western part of the Imperial Palace grounds. The teahouse was moved to the Ninomaru Garden in 1968 to add a note of elegance to the East Gardens when they were opened to the public.
The gate you see in the very last clip is the Kita-Hanebashi Gate. On a further note, this garden had several different types of bamboo which I had never seen before and which you can see in one of the clips.
This was filmed with an iPhone 13. Hope you enjoy!
Note: The music in this video is an excerpt from Shade Of The Sunflower by Mandala Dreams. All credits go to the owner(s). Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BxhdFHf71M&list=RD8BxhdFHf71M&start_radio=1
Note #2: Photography and videography are permitted, but not for commercial use. Since this channel isn’t monetized, this video does not fall under that jurisdiction.
AloJapan.com