Katsura Imperial Villa
The Imperial Villa Katsura (Japanese桂 离宫, Katsura Rikyu, also Imperial Palace In addition, English Katsura Detached Palace ) is a building complex with its beautiful gardens in Nishikyo -ku, a western suburb of Kyoto. The district is separated from the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. The ensemble is one of the most important cultural monuments in Japan. The villa is not open to the public, but rather the garden with its tea houses. For the visit to log in Kyoto office of the Imperial Hofamtes (宫内 庁 京都 事务所) is necessary.
History of the district
The Katsura Ward was for centuries a popular area for the construction of country houses. In the Heian period, Fujiwara no Michinaga there had a country house, since the members of the court regarded the district as suitable for the observation of the moon.
At the beginning of the 17th century built Prince Hachijo Toshihito, a descendant of Emperor Ogimachi, the 106th Tennō, and a brother of the 107th Emperor Go - Yozei Katsura in a country house. Prince Toshihito was the ancestor of the imperial branch line, which became extinct in 1881. 1883 came the Katsura villa in the possession of the Emperor and was administered until the end of World War II for the Imperial Household by the Ministry. Since 1945 until today, the Imperial Household Agency is responsible.
Buildings and gardens
In Katsura District Three buildings are located in the Shoin Style (书院, literally " writing house " ) ( hipped roofs covered with two gables on opposite sides, with shingles ) with roofs in irimoya kokerabuki construction. The Old Shoin has verandas which a porch still protrudes further, so that the moon can be better considered. The walls of the Middle Shoin and New Palace are decorated with ink drawings by the School of Kanō Tan'yu. In the New Palace, the wooden shelves are remarkably upstairs.
The transformation garden and its central pond irrigated by Katsura River. To the central pond are grouped traditional Japanese elements for gardens such as tea houses, hills and sandy areas, bridges and lanterns. There is also a Buddhist prayer room, Onrindō.
Meaning outside of Japan
The German architect Bruno Taut discovered in 1933 during his stay in Japan until 1936, the beauty of the Katsura Villa. His then -authored book Nippon - was seen through European eyes perceived in Japan as a sensation, since Taut pointed out in the book on the beauty of ancient Japanese architecture, which had not been observed in Japan during the modernization until then. After World War " pilgrimage " well-known Western architects such as Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier to Japan and were affected in the aftermath of the Japanese minimalist style and rectangular.