Imperial Palace East Garden

The Imperial Palace East Gardens (Kōkyo Higashi Gyoen) is a historical garden in the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The gardens were first used by the Tokugawa shogunate. There is a bridge which leads to Sakashita-mon gate nearby is the Imperial Household Agency building and Tokyo Imperial Palace (or "kyuden") The garden was built on the grounds of Edo Castle. The Ōte-mon Gate functioned as the main gate of Edo Castle. It was used by the feudal lords who came to stay in the castle under the alternating attendance system of the Tokugawa shogunate, and as such it was a very important gate. All the gardens areas were used as defence. They are translated as "inner circle of defense" (honmaru), "second circle of defense" (ninomaru), and "third circle of defense" (sannomaru). Suwa-no-cha-ya was built by Emperor Meiji in 1912 and is a tea house. Emperor Meiji lived in the Nishinomaru palace near the gardens from 1869 to 1873.

Garden data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).