This is the third of the six articles about Edo Castle.
In this entry, about the east garden of the Imperial Palace will be described.

• Part 1: Outline of Edo Castle
• Part 2: Kokyo Gaien, Wadakura Funsui Koen
• Part 3: Kokyo Higashi Gyoen (this page)
• Part 4: the Imperial Palace & Inui Street
• Part 5: Kitanomaru Koen
• Part 6: Outer moats

Kokyo Higashi-Gyeon

Kokyo Higashi-Gyeon (皇居東御苑), or the East Garden of the Imperial Palace, used to be the very core part of Edo Castle. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are now lost and what remains are only several peripheral buildings.

If you go through the Otemon Gate, there is also a small museum called Sannomaru Shozo-kan which houses arts which were once possessed privately by the Imperial family but now belong to the state.

Daijogu is a temporary palace built and used only for a ceremony called Daijo-sai (the Great Thanksgiving Festival) which last for several days. Daijo-sai is one of the ceremonies conducted when the enthronement of an emperor takes place. When this ceremony ends, Daijogu gets destroyed at once. This ritual had been conducted in Kyoto even after the Imperial family moved to Tokyo but when the present emperor got enthroned, it was done here for the first time.