Imperial Palace & East Gardens
皇居
Edo Castle's moats still ring the emperor's home, and its old inner compounds are now the free East Gardens
About Imperial Palace & East Gardens
Edo Castle was the largest castle ever built in Japan, and for more than 260 years the Tokugawa shoguns governed the country from it. In 1868 Emperor Meiji came from Kyoto and took it over, and every emperor since has lived here. Most of the grounds are closed to visitors, but the castle's twelve moats, the stone walls above them and a handful of its Edo-period gates and turrets are all still there, a ten-minute walk from Tokyo Station.
The part you can walk into is the East Gardens, laid out on the castle's Honmaru, Ninomaru and part of the Sannomaru and open since 1968. There is no ticket, only a bag check and an entry token that you hand back when you leave. From the Otemon, the old main gate, the path climbs past the guardhouses to the Honmaru, where the shoguns' palace once covered more than 33,000 square metres. Today it is a wide lawn, with the empty stone base of the keep at its northern end, and below it to the east is the Ninomaru, with a pond garden laid out from an 18th-century plan.
Give the gardens an hour or two. The rest of the grounds open only for the free palace tour, for the Inui-dori walks in spring and autumn, and on January 2 and February 23, when the imperial family greets the public from the palace balcony. Outside the walls, a path of about 5 km follows the moats all the way round, and on the west side the cherry trees of Chidorigafuchi lean out over the water at the end of March.
Essential Tips
Check the Imperial Household Agency's East Gardens page on the morning you go: the gardens also close for palace events, and gates can shut after storms
Enter by the Kitahanebashimon, 5 minutes from Takebashi Station (exit 1a), to arrive level with the Honmaru and the keep base; from the Otemon the path climbs about 17 m
From October 1 to 26, 2026, the Honmaru rest house, with its shop and drinks machines, is closed for renovation
Sannomaru Shozokan tickets are timed and sold online only, with nothing sold at the door; under-23s get in free but must book too
In spring and autumn the agency opens Inui-dori, the road through the palace from the Sakashitamon to the Inuimon (about 750 m, entry 9 AM to 3:30 PM). You cannot join it from the East Gardens, which in spring 2026 also opened on their usual closed days while it ran
For the New Year greeting on January 2, enter by the Main Gate between 9:30 AM and 2:10 PM; the imperial family comes out on the palace balcony five times, and 60,140 people came in 2026. On the Emperor's Birthday, February 23, there are three appearances in the morning. The East Gardens are closed on both days
Plums flower on the Bairinzaka slope from late December to February; tradition says Ota Dokan planted hundreds there in 1478, beside a shrine to Sugawara no Michizane
Photos for yourself are fine, but filming for YouTube or live streams needs the agency's permission and is normally refused, and drones are banned
No alcohol, knives or pets (assistance dogs excepted), and no climbing on the trees or stone walls
There is no public parking at the palace, so come by train
Don't Miss
Otemon and the Edo Guardhouses
The Otemon was the castle's main gate, used by the shoguns and the daimyo. It is two gates set at right angles, a small one and a large gate turret, so that attackers who broke through the first were trapped in the square behind it; the turret you walk under was rebuilt in 1967. Beyond it, three Edo-period guardhouses line the way up to the Honmaru. The Doshin-bansho has both the Tokugawa hollyhock and the imperial chrysanthemum on its roof tiles, and the 45 m Hyakunin-bansho, the largest, was manned day and night by four companies of gunmen, each of 100 foot soldiers and 20 officers.
The Tenshudai, Base of Japan's Tallest Keep
Three keeps stood in turn on this stone platform at the north end of the Honmaru. The last, finished in 1638 under the third shogun, Iemitsu, rose 58 m above the ground and burned in the great fire of 1657. The base was rebuilt the next year, but Hoshina Masayuki, uncle and adviser to the fourth shogun, argued that an age of peace had no need for a keep, and none went up again. Walk up onto the platform, then find the model of the 1638 keep in the small building beside the Honmaru rest house.
Ninomaru Garden
At the foot of the Shiomizaka, a slope named for the sea it overlooked before the land below was reclaimed, the Ninomaru garden was made for the gardens' opening in 1968, following a plan of the mid-18th century. Its pond holds long-finned koi, a cross of Indonesian long-finned carp and nishikigoi bred at the suggestion of the Emperor Emeritus, and kingfishers hunt along its edges. The iris field beside it has 84 varieties, grown from plants given by Meiji Jingu in 1966, in flower from late May to mid-June.
Nijubashi from the Palace Plaza
The postcard view of the palace is from the plaza outside its main gate: the stone bridge in front, the gate on its left, the iron bridge behind and the Fushimi-yagura turret above them. Strictly, only the iron bridge is the Nijubashi, the 'double bridge': its wooden Edo-period forerunner stood so high over the moat that a lower bridge was built first to hold it up. The bridges are kept for state occasions, and the public crosses them only on January 2 and February 23, to greet the emperor.
What to Do Here
East Gardens Circuit
From the Otemon, climb past the guardhouses to the Honmaru. At its south end stand the Fujimi-yagura, a turret 16 m tall on a 15 m wall, rebuilt in 1659 and the only three-roofed turret left from Edo Castle, and the long Fujimi-tamon, which you can go into. Nearby, a stone marks the site of the Pine Corridor, where in 1701 Asano Naganori drew his sword on Kira Yoshinaka, the attack behind the story of the 47 ronin. Cross the lawn to the keep base, look over the Ninomaru and the Otemachi towers from the observation point, then go down the Shiomizaka to the Ninomaru garden and leave by the Hirakawamon or the Otemon.
Tips:
- Keep the entry token you are handed at the gate: you give it back when you leave, by any of the three gates
- Bags are checked at the gates, and there are no coin lockers inside the gardens
- The rest houses sell souvenirs and drinks from machines but no food, and there are no bins: bring a packed lunch for the benches and take your rubbish home
- Download the Imperial Household Agency's free audio-guide app, which has English, before you arrive
- You cannot walk through the gardens to the Kikyomon, where the palace tour starts: leave by the Otemon and walk round, about 5 minutes
Palace Grounds Tour
On an ordinary day, the Imperial Household Agency's tour is the only way into the grounds beyond the East Gardens. It sets off from the Kikyomon and covers 2.2 km on foot, all outdoors, past the Fujimi-yagura, the agency's own building of 1935 and the East Plaza, where the crowds gather at New Year, to the Nijubashi and the Fushimi-yagura turret. You see the palace from outside only; it was finished in 1968 on the Nishinomaru, once the retired shoguns' compound.
Tips:
- Book online from 5 AM Japan time on the 1st of the month before; booking closes four days ahead, with 200 places a tour
- No booking? The Kikyomon hands out 300 same-day tickets a tour, from 9 AM for the morning tour and 12:30 PM for the afternoon one
- Bring a passport or other photo ID (copies are refused); under-18s need an adult with them
- Bags are checked, and the small lockers inside the Kikyomon are for tour visitors, so leave anything big at a station
- There is little shade and one fairly steep slope, and no afternoon tours run from July to September
The Moat Loop
A path of about 5 km follows the moats round the palace, on the pavements beside Uchibori-dori and the roads that join it. Go anticlockwise from the Otemon, the way runners do: north past the Hirakawamon and Kitahanebashimon, up past Chidorigafuchi to the Hanzomon, then down beside the Sakurada-bori, the biggest of the palace moats, to the Sakuradamon, the gate outside which the shogunate's chief minister, Ii Naosuke, was assassinated in 1860. The last stretch passes the Nijubashi view and the Tatsumi-yagura corner turret above the Kikyo-bori on the way back to the Otemon.
Tips:
- Keep anticlockwise: it is the local rule for runs round the inner moats
- The only climb is from Takebashi up to the Hanzomon, about 25 m
- The Sakuradamon, rebuilt in 1636, has the largest walled square of any surviving castle gate: walk through it rather than past it
- Takebashi, Hanzomon, Sakuradamon and Nijubashimae stations are all on the way if you want to stop part of the way round
Chidorigafuchi Cherry Blossom Walk
Chidorigafuchi is the moat on the palace's west side, and about 230 cherry trees, mostly Somei-yoshino and Oshima-zakura, line the 700 m Chidorigafuchi Ryokudo path along its bank, from Yasukuni-dori to the entrance of the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery. During the Chiyoda Sakura Festival the trees are lit from sunset to 9 PM (March 26 to April 6 in 2026), and Chiyoda City's boat pier halfway along stays open into the evening. The sample tree the weather agency watches for Tokyo's bloom stands at Yasukuni Shrine, a short walk north.
Tips:
- Boats cost ¥1,500 per 30 minutes in cherry season (¥1,000 at other times) for up to three people, 10 AM to 5 PM; the pier closes on Mondays and from December to February
- On light-up weekends the path is one-way from the Yasukuni-dori end: start from Kudanshita Station (exit 2), because you cannot get in at the Hanzomon end
- There are no stalls on the path and tripods are banned; picnic sheets go in Chidorigafuchi Park at the Hanzomon end
- The boat queues are long in blossom season, so come on a weekday if you can
Plan Your Visit
Opening Hours
east Gardens
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM from November to February, to 4:30 PM in October, to 5:00 PM from March 1 to April 14 and in September, and to 6:00 PM from April 15 to August; last entry 30 minutes before closing
closed Days
East Gardens: Mondays and Fridays, except national holidays; also the Emperor's Birthday (February 23), the Tuesday after a holiday Monday, December 28 to January 3, and days of palace events
guided Tours
Palace grounds tour: Tuesday to Saturday at 10:00 AM and 1:30 PM, about 75 minutes. No afternoon tour from July to September, no tours on national holidays unless they fall on a Saturday, and none from December 28 to January 4
sannomaru Shozokan
Museum of the Imperial Collections, inside the East Gardens: closed until its grand opening on November 3, 2026, then 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM (last entry 4:30 PM). Closed Mondays (the next weekday after a holiday Monday); open on Fridays, when you enter by the Otemon
moat Loop
The pavements round the moats are public streets, open day and night
Best Time to Visit
A weekday morning, from the 9 AM opening. The East Gardens' 30 or so kinds of cherry flower from February to April, and Chidorigafuchi peaks with Tokyo's main bloom: full bloom came between March 22 and April 4 in 2021-2026. Autumn colour in the gardens peaked at the end of November in 2025.
Avoid:
The spring and autumn Inui-dori openings (March 21-29 in 2026, November 29 to December 7 in 2025), when up to 50,000 people a day walk Inui-dori and the East Gardens' Otemon and Kitahanebashimon gates get crowded: use the Hirakawamon then. Cherry blossom weekends at Chidorigafuchi.
Nearby
Tokyo Station
The red-brick Marunouchi building of 1914, restored in 2012; Ramen Street and Character Street are underground on the Yaesu side.
700 m
Kitanomaru Park
The castle's north enclosure, a park since 1969, with the Budokan and the Science Museum; the Tayasu gate of 1636 at its north end is the oldest Edo Castle building still standing.
Opposite the Kitahanebashimon
Yasukuni Shrine
Founded in 1869 for the imperial side's dead of the Boshin War, it now enshrines more than 2.46 million of Japan's war dead, men executed after Allied war-crimes trials among them; its Yushukan museum (¥1,000) tells the wars from the shrine's side.
1.2 km
Nihonbashi
The bridge the Edo-period highways started from, still the zero point for road distances to Tokyo, with Mitsukoshi's main store and COREDO Muromachi beside it.
1.3 km
Gallery
Seen from the palace plaza, whose 2,000 or so black pines were first planted in 1888
In 2025 the maples and ginkgos had turned all over the gardens by the last days of November
The model beside the Honmaru rest house shows what stood here: five roofs and six floors, about 60 m with the base
Chidori means plover, the shape of the moat; it was one with the Hanzo-bori until a road cut across it in 1900
Twelve moats ring the palace, and the biggest of them is the Sakurada-bori, between the Hanzomon and the Sakuradamon
History
founding
Ota Dokan built the first castle here in 1457, and it became a Hojo stronghold in 1524. In 1590, after Toyotomi Hideyoshi destroyed the Hojo, Tokugawa Ieyasu was given their lands in the Kanto and made Edo Castle his seat; he did little more than patch it up at first. His son Hidetada and grandson Iemitsu enlarged it, ring by ring of moats and walls, into the largest castle ever built in Japan.
significance
From 1603, when Ieyasu became shogun, until 1867, Edo Castle was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. It changed hands without a fight: in May 1868, after Katsu Kaishu had negotiated the terms with Saigo Takamori, the shogunate handed it over to the new government's army, and Emperor Meiji moved in from Kyoto later that year. The moats and part of the East Gardens were made a Special Historic Site in 1960.
reconstruction
Fire took most of the castle's buildings over the centuries. The great fire of 1657 destroyed the keep. In 1873 the palace the emperor was living in burned down, and the Meiji Palace that replaced it in 1888 was lost in the air raids of 1945; until today's palace was finished in 1968, the third floor of the Imperial Household Agency building served instead. The Edo-period survivors are the moats and walls, the Fujimi-yagura, the guardhouses and gates such as the Tayasumon of 1636, the oldest of them.
name Origin
Kōkyo (皇居) simply means 'imperial residence'. When Emperor Meiji arrived in 1868 the castle was renamed Tōkei-jō, 'Tokyo Castle', and in 1869 Kōjō; from 1888, when the Meiji Palace was finished, it was called Kyūjō, and only in 1948 did it take today's name.
Getting There
Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway
Station: Otemachi Station
Exit: Exit C13a
Walk: 5 minutes to the Otemon (East Gardens)
Served by the Marunouchi, Tozai, Chiyoda and Hanzomon Lines and the Toei Mita Line. From Shibuya, the Hanzomon Line runs direct in 17 minutes for the same fare.
JR Lines
Station: Tokyo Station
Exit: Marunouchi North Exit
Walk: 10 minutes (700 m) to the Otemon
For the palace tour or the Nijubashi view, use the Marunouchi Central Exit instead: 15 minutes to the Kikyomon or the palace plaza.
Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line
Station: Nijubashimae Station
Exit: Exit 6
Walk: 10 minutes to the Kikyomon, where the palace tour starts; the Nijubashi viewing area on the palace plaza is about 9 minutes away
The nearest station for the Nijubashi view and the palace tour.
Tokyo Metro Hanzomon and Tozai Lines, Toei Shinjuku Line
Station: Kudanshita Station
Exit: Exit 2
Walk: 5 minutes to the north end of the Chidorigafuchi path
The station for Chidorigafuchi in cherry season, when the path is one-way from this end on light-up weekends. On other days Hanzomon Station (exit 5) is 5 minutes from its south end.
Location
1-1 Chiyoda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8111
Nearest: Otemachi Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi, Tozai, Chiyoda and Hanzomon Lines; Toei Mita Line) (5 minutes from exit C13a to the Otemon gate of the East Gardens)
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Imperial Palace & East Gardens