Wanloria › Destinations › Kyoto › Shugaku-in Imperial Villa

Shugaku-in Imperial Villa

Leisure villa that the retired emperor Go-Mizunoo began building in 1655 on the eastern slopes of Kyoto; the initial works were finished in 1659. The complex is divided into three gardens, the lower, the middle and the upper, linked by two avenues of pines about a hundred metres long that cross rice fields. In the upper garden, the largest, a large artificial pond formed by a dam across a hollow lies at the centre of a view that takes in the landscape of the nearby mountains. There are the Kyusui-tei pavilion, the Chitose-bashi stone bridge, topped by two wooden pavilions, and a waterfall of about ten metres. The middle garden holds the Rakushi-ken and the Kyaku-den, and the lower one the Jugetsu-kan. The visit covers about three kilometres of path, with stone bridges without railings and steep slopes, and does not enter the buildings, although they can be seen through the open doors.

Things to do at Shugaku-in Imperial Villa: 4 missions

• Take in the large pond of the upper gardenFrom the upper garden, look at the pond created with a dam and how the mountain landscape is built into the view.
• Find the Chitose-bashi bridge and its pavilionsFind the stone bridge with two pillars topped by wooden pavilions; one of them carries a gilded copper phoenix.
• Find the waterfall in the upper gardenFind the waterfall of about ten metres that drops into the pond in the upper garden and look at it from the visitor path.
• Walk the pine avenues between rice paddiesWalk along one of the two long pine avenues linking the gardens and notice how the path crosses the rice fields.

Near Shugaku-in Imperial Villa

Source: Web oficial - Agencia de la Casa Imperial (Shugaku-in)