Shugaku-in Imperial Villa
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The Shūgaku-in Imperial Villa (修学院離宮 Shūgaku-in Rikyū?), or Shūgaku-in Detached Palace, is a set of gardens and outbuildings (mostly tea-houses) in the hills of the eastern suburbs of Kyoto, Japan (separate from the Kyoto Imperial Palace). It is one of Japan's most important large-scale cultural treasures; its gardens are one of the great masterpieces of Japanese gardening.
Although styled as a "detached palace", often translated as "imperial villa", there were never any large-scale buildings there, as there are at the Katsura Imperial Villa. The grounds actually include three separate gardens, the Lower Garden, Middle Garden (a later addition), and Upper Garden, of which the latter is the most important.
The Imperial Household Agency administers it, and accepts visitors by appointment.
[edit] History
The Shūgaku-in was originally constructed by the retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo, starting in 1655, with the initial construction completed in 1659,
The location occupied by the Shūgaku-in was previously occupied by the Enshō-ji nunnery, founded by his oldest daughter, Princess Ume-no-miya; it was moved to Nara to make room for Go-Mizunoo's creation.
The Upper Garden contained a large artificial pond, created by building an earthen dam across a ravine; the pond contains a number of small islands. Unlike the typical Japanese garden, it is a very large stroll garden, making extensive use of the technique of "borrowed scenery".
The Lower Garden was originally much more informal than what is now there; originally it was more of a simple arrival station for visiting guests.
After Go-Mizunoo's death, his daughter Princess Mitsuko became a nun, and established another temple there, the Ryinku-ji, in what later became the Middle Garden.
The gardens and buildings then fell into disrepair, with some of the buildings either being destroyed, or removed. During the rule of Tokugawa Ienari, the 11th Tokugawa shogun, the Shūgaku-in was thoroughly renovated,
In 1883, the Shūgaku-in came under the control of the Imperial Household Department (as it was then), and the large building which is currently in the Middle Garden was moved there.
Other changes, such as the building of fences around the Lower and Middle Gardens, and the enclosure of the paths between them, soon followed, giving the Shūgaku-in the character it has today.
[edit] Further reading
- Yoshiro Taniguchi, Jiro Harada, Tatsuzo Sato, The Shugakuin Imperial Villa (Mainichi, Tokyo, 1956) (text in Japanese and English)
- Teiji Itoh, Takeji Iwamiya, Imperial Gardens of Japan (Weatherill, New York, 1970) covers the gardens in great detail
- Tadashi Ishikawa, Imperial Villas of Kyoto: The Katsura and Shūgaku-in (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1970)
- Michio Fujioka, Shigeo Okamoto, (translated Bruce A. Coats) Kyoto Country Retreats: The Shugakuin and Katsura Palaces (Kodansha, New York, 1983)
