Shinjuku Gyoen Former Western-Style Imperial Rest House

An Imperial Rest House in an Imperial Garden

The Shinjuku Gyoen Former Western-Style Imperial Rest House (新宿御苑旧洋館御休所) is a rest house for the imperial family of 1896 in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Naitomachi, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 14, 2001 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building of 480.1 square metres, gabled with a slate roof and sheet-metal eaves, with a front porch; the former boiler room is designated with it; designation number 02401.

A Rest House in the Imperial Botanical Garden

The site of Shinjuku Gyoen came under the Imperial Household Ministry in 1879; at first it held hunting grounds and silkworm facilities, and it was gradually laid out as the imperial family's botanical garden (Agency for Cultural Affairs). The rest house stands facing roughly south on the north side of the central lawn, built in 1896 to designs by the Ministry's Office of Construction as a place for the imperial family to rest when visiting the greenhouses.

The Ministry of the Environment says that when a golf course and tennis courts were laid out in the later Taisho years it served the imperial family as a clubhouse, and until 1994 it was the garden's administration office. It came through the air raids of 1945 unscathed and was designated after restoration.

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency praises its elegant exterior in a style then popular chiefly in American houses, and values it as the only surviving garden rest house of the imperial family from the Meiji and Taisho eras, and as a key work for understanding the Office of Construction. It was designated an Important Cultural Property on November 14, 2001.

What to Look For

The Ministry of the Environment points out the deep blue-green trim of the roof. Notice the elegant American-style exterior and the front porch (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

Shinjuku Gyoen is a national garden managed by the Ministry of the Environment; it closes on Mondays (or the next weekday if Monday is a holiday) and over the New Year (Ministry of the Environment). Check the official guide for the days when the rest house interior is open.