A Guardhouse from Inside the Palace Walls
The Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex (Imperial Palace Police Sakashita Guard Station Annex), in Japanese 明治村近衛局本部付属舎（皇宮警察坂下護衛署別館）, is a single-storey timber government building at the Meiji Mura Museum in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, completed in 1888 inside the Imperial Palace precinct in Tokyo and entered on the national register as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.
Its purpose changed while it was still going up. Meiji Mura records that construction began in 1887 for a station of the Imperial Palace Police, and that the brief was altered mid-build so that the completed complex became the headquarters of the Imperial Guard Bureau, the body responsible for guarding the palace and for ceremonial duties. The museum states that the bureau was renamed the Imperial Guard Division in 1889.
This building was the annex. It stood to the left of a two-storey main block, linked to it by a connecting passage that doubled as a hot-water room. In 1911 the division headquarters moved out, the Imperial Palace Police moved in, and the buildings became the Sakashita Guard Station, taking their name from the palace gate beside them.
Who drew it is unknown. Meiji Mura notes that the neighbouring Imperial Household Ministry offices were the work of Josiah Conder, who lived from 1852 to 1902, but that no architect has been identified for the Imperial Guard complex. The building was taken down in 1967 and re-erected at Meiji Mura in 1977, where the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex now stands on plot 4 in the first district, a short walk from the main gate.
Why It Was Registered
Registration came on 1 December 2003, in the thirty-ninth round of listings, under registry number 23-0066, on the ground that the building counts as a model of design. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex as single-storey timber construction with a tiled roof and a building area of 197 square meters, and files it under government offices rather than housing.
The Agency's summary is unusually specific about where the interest lies. The building sits on a plinth of dressed stone, carries a hipped yosemune-zukuri roof in sangawara-buki pantiles, and runs a cornice around its eaves. Inside and out, the walls are finished in smooth white shikkui lime plaster. Doorways are double-leaf with a ranma transom above; the windows are sashes. And the design turns on one thing above all: a thin cornice that follows the semicircular arches of the front arcade, springing from the height of the capitals.
That is a modest claim for a building to rest on, and it is the honest one. The Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex is not grand. It is a well-proportioned office in the Western manner, put up at a moment when the Japanese government was still deciding what its own buildings should look like, and it survives when most of its contemporaries in the palace precinct do not.
What to Look For
Stand square to the front and look at the shadow. The Aichi prefectural cultural property record explains a detail that is easy to feel and hard to name: because the gutter was concealed in a box rather than hung in the open, the eaves cornice had to be pushed forward from the wall, which created a soffit above it. The result is a band of shade that sits across the façade of the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex and moves with the sun.
Then walk the arcade. A passage runs along the front beneath the eaves, and the arches over it are true semicircles, each traced by the slim moulding that the Agency for Cultural Affairs identifies as the core of the design. Openings into the rooms line the inner side of the passage. The Aichi record adds that drawings made at the time of construction show cast-iron railings fitted between the arcade piers, which are no longer there.
Now crouch. Ventilation openings for the underfloor space are cut at intervals through the stone plinth, and each is fitted with a cast-iron grille worked in a plant pattern. These are the sort of thing nobody photographs, and they are among the more rewarding parts of the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex, because they show a government office of 1888 spending real money on a component that sits at ankle height.
Finally, read the wall. The plaster is deliberately flat and unmodelled, so the only relief on the elevation is the cornice, the arches and the frames of the sash windows. Nothing competes. A building that renders in white plaster what a European office of the same date would have rendered in stone is a specific kind of translation, and it is on view here at close range.
Visiting
The Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex stands in the first district of the Meiji Mura Museum, inside the paid area, close enough to the main gate that most visitors pass it early. Admission is 2,500 yen for adults, 1,500 yen for high school students and 700 yen for junior high and elementary school students, with preschool children free. Prices were checked on 3 September 2026.
The exterior, which is where the interest of this building lies, can be seen throughout opening hours, and the arcade along the front is the natural place to stand. Interior access varies, so check the museum website close to your visit rather than assuming. Opening hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from April through July and again in September and October, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in August, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in November with Saturdays and holidays extended to 5:00 p.m., 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from December through February, and 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in March, with last admission 30 minutes before closing. Closing days are set individually through the year rather than falling on a fixed weekday.
Photography for personal use requires no permit. Tripods and monopods cannot be used inside buildings or near entrances and in narrow passages, which in practice means the arcade of the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex should be shot handheld. Advertising and commercial work needs an application at least two weeks ahead.
The museum is about 20 minutes by Gifu Bus from the east exit of Meitetsu Inuyama Station, and direct buses also run from Nagoya Station and Sakae. By road it is 3 km from the Komaki-higashi interchange on the Chūō Expressway, with parking at 1,000 yen for a standard car.
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Q&A
- What was the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex used for?
- It was begun in 1887 as a station for the Imperial Palace Police, completed in 1888 as an annex to the headquarters of the Imperial Guard Bureau, and from 1911 used by the Imperial Palace Police as the Sakashita Guard Station, after the division headquarters moved elsewhere.
- Where did the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex originally stand?
- Inside the Imperial Palace precinct in Chiyoda, Tokyo, near the Sakashita gate, alongside a two-storey main block to which it was joined by a connecting passage. It was dismantled in 1967 and rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1977.
- Who designed the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex?
- No architect has been identified. Meiji Mura points out that the Imperial Household Ministry offices next door were designed by Josiah Conder, but says the designer of the Imperial Guard buildings remains unknown.
- Can I go inside the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex?
- The exterior and the front arcade can be seen freely during opening hours. Interior access varies by period and by exhibition schedule, so confirm on the museum website before you travel. The museum also restricts entry to some buildings for safety reasons.
- What is the designation status of the Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex?
- It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, entered on the national register on 1 December 2003 under registry number 23-0066. It is not an Important Cultural Property, and registration is a different system from designation.
Basic Information
| Name | Meiji Village Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex (Imperial Palace Police Sakashita Guard Station Annex) |
|---|---|
| Location | Meiji Mura Museum, 1 Uchiyama, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Structures) |
| Year Designated | 2003 |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Building area 197 square meters |
| Owner | Meiji Mura Public Interest Foundation |
| Public Access | Exterior open to view; interior access varies |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/101/00003653
- Cultural Heritage Online
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/183563
- Aichi Prefecture, Cultural Property Navi Aichi
- https://jmapps.ne.jp/aichi_bunkazai/det.html?data_id=1878
- Meiji Mura Museum, Imperial Guard Headquarters Annex
- https://www.meijimura.com/sight/%E8%BF%91%E8%A1%9B%E5%B1%80%E6%9C%AC%E9%83%A8%E4%BB%98%E5%B1%9E%E8%88%8E/
- Meiji Mura Museum, Opening Hours and Closing Days
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/open/
- Meiji Mura Museum, Admission and Tickets
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/price/
- Meiji Mura Museum, Access
- https://www.meijimura.com/guide/access/
Last verified: 2026.09.03