Katsura Imperial Villa is one of the most influential buildings in the world. Constructed for an imperial prince in the early seventeenth century on the western bank of the Katsura River, the villa's modular post-and-beam architecture, sliding paper walls, integration of building and garden, and pure geometric restraint became the founding text of Japanese aesthetic minimalism — and, through Bruno Taut and a generation of mid-twentieth-century architects, a major influence on European and American modernism.
Visits are by free guided tour, booked through the Imperial Household Agency in advance with passport. The tour, in Japanese with English audio guide, takes about an hour and follows a precisely choreographed route around the strolling garden — past four tea houses, a central pond with islands, a moonviewing platform, and finally the Shoin main building. Cameras allowed; tripods not. One of the great hours in Japanese travel.