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[[File:Nijubashi.jpg|right|thumb|400px|The famous ''Nijûbashi'' bridge leading into the palace.]]
[[File:Nijubashi.jpg|right|thumb|400px|The famous ''Nijûbashi'' bridge leading into the palace.]]
*''Date: [[1889]]''
*''Date: October [[1888]]''
*''Japanese'': 皇居 ''(koukyo)''
*''Japanese'': 皇居 ''(koukyo)''
The Tokyo Imperial Palace, or ''kôkyo'' (lit. "Imperial residence"), completed in [[1889]], is the seat of the [[Emperor of Japan]]. Located on the former grounds of the [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa shoguns']] [[Edo castle]] at the center of [[Tokyo]], the palace compound includes imperial residences, meeting rooms, administrative offices, and ritual spaces, as well as several extensive private gardens and public parks, archives, and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, or ''[[Sannomaru Shozokan|Sannomaru Shôzôkan]]''. While the former sites of the ''honmaru'', ''ninomaru'', and ''sannomaru'' of Edo castle are today mostly empty, the palace buildings being located elsewhere in the compound, a number of other buildings from the time of the shoguns either survive or have been rebuilt, along with many of the compound's gates, and much of the foundational stone castle walls.
The Tokyo Imperial Palace, or ''kôkyo'' (lit. "Imperial residence"), completed in [[1888]], is the seat of the [[Emperor of Japan]]. Located on the former grounds of the [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa shoguns']] [[Edo castle]] at the center of [[Tokyo]], the palace compound includes imperial residences, meeting rooms, administrative offices, and ritual spaces, as well as several extensive private gardens and public parks, archives, and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, or ''[[Sannomaru Shozokan|Sannomaru Shôzôkan]]''. While the former sites of the ''honmaru'', ''ninomaru'', and ''sannomaru'' of Edo castle are today mostly empty, the palace buildings being located elsewhere in the compound, a number of other buildings from the time of the shoguns either survive or have been rebuilt, along with many of the compound's gates, and much of the foundational stone castle walls.
==History==
==History==
As construction neared completion, the Imperial Household commissioned numerous artists, textile producers, and the like, including [[Iida Shinshichi III]] of [[Takashimaya]] and [[Kawashima Jinbei II]], in [[1887]], to produce works for decorating the palace.<ref>Ellen Conant, "Cut from Kyoto Cloth: Takeuchi Seihô and his Artistic Milieu," ''Impressions'' 33 (2012), 75.</ref>
As construction neared completion, the Imperial Household commissioned numerous artists, textile producers, and the like, including [[Iida Shinshichi III]] of [[Takashimaya]] and [[Kawashima Jinbei II]], in [[1887]], to produce works for decorating the palace.<ref>Ellen Conant, "Cut from Kyoto Cloth: Takeuchi Seihô and his Artistic Milieu," ''Impressions'' 33 (2012), 75.</ref>
The Palace was completed in October 1888, roughly four months before the promulgation of the [[Meiji Constitution]]. It consisted of thirty-six buildings, all linked by corridors, and constructed mostly in a traditional Japanese style, in wood, with ''[[irimoya]]'' roofs. The palace was divided into roughly two sections: the ''oku kyûden'', containing the private residences of the Emperor and Imperial family, with wholly traditional Japanese interiors; and the ''omote kyûden'', including audience halls and meeting rooms, done in a combination of more traditional and more Western styles. Much of the furniture was hand-selected in Germany by architect [[Katayama Tokuma|Katayama Tôkuma]], who would later go on to design several of the National Museums, and the [[Akasaka Detached Palace]].<ref>Fujitani, 77.</ref>
A series of broad thoroughfares which cut through the palace's outer gardens (''gaien'') were constructed explicitly as "triumphal avenues" (''gaisen dôro'') for the Imperial Military Review of April [[1906]], with the explicit intention of creating a space for monumental national ceremonies in the modern (Western) mode.<ref>Fujitani, 16.</ref>
A series of broad thoroughfares which cut through the palace's outer gardens (''gaien'') were constructed explicitly as "triumphal avenues" (''gaisen dôro'') for the Imperial Military Review of April [[1906]], with the explicit intention of creating a space for monumental national ceremonies in the modern (Western) mode.<ref>Fujitani, 16.</ref>