The Main Building of the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace is a true palace of European taste that was constructed out of the desire to create an edifice rivalling prestigious European palaces. The desire was not to make imitation of an European palace out of the Main Building, but to harmoniously include Japanese elements all over the building—it was a desire to create a fully original palace that could only be built by the Japanese.
The front courtyard where hospitality and refined style coexist
During the major restoration in the Showa period, Murano Tōgo who supervised the restoration had the front courtyard of the Palace, which was to become the new State Guest House, greatly changed to a Japnese-style space adequate for entertaining guests. He conceptualised the way leading from the Main Gate to the Main Entrance as a roji (garden next to a teahouse), a narrowed pathway to represent the idea of removing any authority of the host and to welcome guests with a gentle, courteous heart. This was achieved by planting Japanese black pines along the side of the path and installed a middle gate that functions as a wicket door. The Main Building seen from outside the fence and through the pine trees has a solemnity not seen in other countries; the Main Gate seen from the Main Entrance and through the green pine leaves is a vision of elegance and beauty. In addition, a Japanese style annex was also erected to the east of the Main Building during the major restoration in order to entertain foreign guests with Japanese culture.
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Main Building(winter)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
The samurai statues that guard the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace
A top the central roof of the Main Building are two flanking bronze samurai statues in full armour.
One has the mouth open...
...while the other has the mouth closed. They function as a’un (Buddhist concept of the beginning and the end of things) statues that are commonly seen guarding temple and shrine gates.
The pediment above the main entrance is adorned with a relief of the imperial chrysanthemum emblem. On the stone below is the Order of the Rising Sun, which is flanked by reliefs of the Orders of the Sacred Treasure. The imperial chrysanthemum emblem is the symbol of the Imperial Household, while the Order of the Rising was the first order created in Japan, followed by the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
Main EntranceAkasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
Emblems on the front entrance doors
The front entrance doors were created in France, as was the Main Gate.
There are three sets of doors: centre, left and right.
Guests enter the Main Building from the central doors.
The imperial chrysanthemum emblem — the symbol of the Imperial Household — can be seen above the central doors.
The centre of each door is decorated with the paulownia crest (called Goshichi no Kiri) used by the Japanese government as its official symbol today. The paulownia crest was also once the crest used by the Imperial Household but as daimyos were bestowed with the crest by the Imperial Household, the symbol began to be used in many crests.
Main Entrance(Lighting-up)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
The building illuminated in the evening emits an ambience different from that during the day.
Fountain(summer)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
The main garden on the south side of the Main Building also provides a Japanese landscape.
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Fountain(summer)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
During the major restoration in the Showa period, Tōgo Murano made several changes to the space, such as raising the ground level, in order to create a large, impressive fountain. Yet an impressive fountain was, after all, a fountain and not typical in Japanese landscaping. In thinking so, he had pine trees planted between the fountain and the Main Building, allowing visitors to peek through the trees and get a glance of the fountain, and thus creating a landscape not seen in the west.
Representations of flowers and birds in Japanese and European styles
The Kacho no Ma (Hall of Flowers and Birds) is decorated with 24 pieces of oil painting of animals, birds and flowers purchased from a French interior decoration company. It also has 12 pieces of oil paintings with images painted over gold-leafed canvas, as well as 30 elliptical cloisonné (image created on enameled metal) panels depicting birds frolicking around seasonal plants and flowers.
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Cloisonne ware(Daurian Redstart with Peony)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
The sketches for the cloisonné panels were made by Watanabe Shōtei, a master Nihonga painter of the Meiji period, and the cloisonné panels were created by closionné genius Namikawa Sōsuke.
Sosuke NAMIKAWAAkasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
Namikawa Sōsuke (1847-1910)
Leading cloisonné artist during the Meiji period. He was the recipient of many awards in and outside of Japan, including an honorary medal at the Paris World Exposition in 1889. He developed the non-wirework cloisonné by removing the wirework for dividing the different enamels. The cloisonné panels in the Kacho no Ma hall are considered to be the best in the history of cloisonné.
Seitei WATANABEAkasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
Watanabe Shōtei (1851-1918)
Meiji Japanese painter who, after having the opportunity to showcase his work at the Paris World Exposition in 1878, became the first Japanese painter to travel to France, where he interacted with Impressionist painters such as Manet and Degas. Many of his works can be found in the West. He also borrowed western realism to create his own unique style of kacho-ga (paintings of flowers and birds).
Cloisonne ware(Japanese Bantams)Akasaka Palace (The State Guest House)
Please go look for other rooms and find some Japanese elements!
Support: Amana Hiraga（Adjunct associate professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology）
Photography: Tadashi Okochi
photography of front garden ：State Guest House
Photography of Sosuke Namikawa :International Research Center for Japanese studies
Photography of Shotei Watanabe: 『meandering stream』May, 1932
Translation by Eddy Y. L. Chang
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