Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle & the City's Imperial History

The Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所 — the former ruling palace of the Emperor of Japan from 794 until the Emperor Meiji moved the imperial seat to Tokyo in 1869 — the current palace buildings, rebuilt in 1855 in the original Heian-period style after a fire, set within the Kyoto Imperial Park (京都御苑)) is the centrepiece of Kyoto's imperial heritage; Nijo Castle (二条城 — the flatland castle built in 1603 by the Tokugawa Ieyasu as his Kyoto residence — UNESCO World Heritage since 1994) is the finest surviving example of the Edo-period shogunal architectural aesthetic.