Nijō Castle was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, and was where, in 1867, the fifteenth and last shogun handed back political authority to the emperor — the formal end of seven centuries of military rule. It is the best-preserved example of shoin-zukuri warrior-aristocratic architecture in Japan.
Inside the Ninomaru Palace, thirty-three rooms unfold along long zigzagging corridors. The audience halls are decorated with gilt-leaf paintings by the Kanō school showing tigers, pine trees, and falcons — power displayed in ink and gold. The famous uguisu-bari (nightingale floors) creak unmistakably underfoot, a security device disguised as ornament. Outside, the moats, the surviving inner-bailey ruins, and the honmaru garden make for an hour's walk. Photography is not permitted inside the palace.