Oops, looks like I've overcompensated as I'm running out of pics of Niji-jo and haven't started the commentary. Well I should start the commentary with a little blurb about the history of Japan but I'll do that later since I have tons of photos of temples, which is really what Kyoto is famous for, and I'll probably run out of accompanying words fast. So very briefly, Kyoto was the capital of Japan pretty much forever, well, from around 800 AD to 1850 AD, when it moved to Tokyo. The whole of Japan's history is pretty much a power struggle between the imperial family and the shogun, who was the leader of the samurai warriors and something like a military dictator. Generally the emperor played around at court in Kyoto while the shogun actually ran things in various other cities, but in the 17th century he plopped this palace down near the imperial palace just to further intimidate the emperor. It's not a great place to start a tour of Kyoto because the architecture is quite different from the rest of the historical sights, which are all very delicate and refined, while this is more a military outpost from Tokyo. Couldn't take photos inside, but you'd be amazed if you're familiar with European palaces, this is uber-Zen, very minimalist and frankly uncomfortable looking. But apparently the shogun only came here three or four times in the hundreds of years he had this place as his Kyoto crash pad, usually to force the emperor to pay a visit to him and show the country who the real power was.
Thought I'd go with a Bridges of Imperial Palace theme while I digress into attacking the Imperial family. In my largely uninformed opinion, this has to be the wimpiest royal family anywhere in the world. Their giant claim to fame is they are the world's oldest royal family, by a long shot, since they've been ruling Japan pretty much since there's been a Japan, while other ruling families take over and get overthrown in the general tussle of ruling. But the way they've survived is to be almost invisible. Almost invariably for the first thousand years, the shoguns who nominally served them actually ran the country and ignored and humiliated them. And the emperors' response was to sit in their gardens, making tea and writing haikus. Keep in mind that the Japanese believed their emperors were gods at the time, which should have given them some leverage. They have a brief flash of willpower in the late 1800's when the shogun is finally overthrown and the emperor moves to Tokyo, but he's promptly coopted by the military and ignored again, albeit in a nicer palace. Then after the second world war, the military is wiped away, so it's hard to see who's going to boss the emperors around now, but believe it or not, the bureaucracy takes over. The Imperial Household Agency, basically the emperors' servants, totally dictates what the emperor does and whether he's allowed out of his palace, they even gave the current princess a nervous breakdown because they kept pushing her to have a boy. Most husbands wouldn't tolerate the servants giving their wives a breakdown, but not in this family. Anyway, I do think the bridges are pretty.
