Nijô-jô (Nijo Castle) was constructed by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603 when he first declared himself the new shogun of Japan. Though not necessarily constructed as a major defensible castle like one would in a designed castle town, it did have a main tower, defensible walls, and moats. Nijô-jô served as the Tokugawa base of operations when the shogun was in Kyoto, and was built with a vast garden and a luxurious palace on the castle grounds.

For visitors: 9.

There's no denying that Nijô-jô is a tourist trap. Apart from the main tower, which was removed, much of the castle grounds remain very much in great condition. Last I checked the castle is undergoing some renovations, and there might be plans for the tower to be rebuilt. (Honestly, I don't know about that last one since there are nationalist debates that are intertwined with that idea, but certainly the palace grounds are.) There are many reasons to go to the castle and enjoy it. From the architecture to the location, Nijô-jô is not one of the most castle-like castles, but it’s certainly one of the most opulent ones still standing in Japan. The Edo Period is renowned for its architecture which used bountiful colors and wooden carvings to create this sensation of overflowing joy and, most importantly, wealth. Gold accents highlight otherwise standard wooden supports and frames while the colors overwhelm the senses. But why is this important? Japanese architecture, and in particular the architecture of imperial and noble households in Kyoto, follows a very clean and simplistic style of elegant structures with brilliantly painted monochromatic paper screens. Some of you readers might have heard of the term wabi sabi, “refined simplicity.” Though this term and the popularized style it describes really grew during the Sengoku Jidai of the 16th century, many of the noble houses were not built with this idea in mind. Actually quite the opposite, these traditional noble households followed this style for hundreds of years until the warrior governments and the associated wave of overt displays of wealth pushed the aristocracy to adopt the growing trend as well. Edo Period architecture was the next step with more than just gold leaf screens, but the above mentioned accents and decorations applied to any and all available surfaces. Nijô-jô was built as a statement to the Kansai area with one message in mind: “Make no mistake, the Tokugawa clan holds the wealth and power here in Kyoto.” As a funny side note, look at where Nijô-jô is in Kyoto in reference to the Imperial palace and it becomes very clear what purpose the castle really holds in the heart of Kyoto.