Japan · 17th century
The Shugaku-in Imperial Villa (修学院離宮, Shugaku-in Rikyū), or Shugaku-in Detached Palace, is a set of gardens and outbuildings (mostly teahouses) in the hills of the eastern suburbs of Kyoto, Japan (separate from the Kyoto Imperial Palace). It is one of Japan's most important large-scale cultural treasures; its gardens are one of the great masterpieces of Japanese gardening.
Although styled as a "detached palace", often translated as "imperial villa", there were never any large-scale buildings there, as there are at the Katsura Imperial Villa. The 53-hectare (133 acre) grounds actually include three separate gardens, the Lower Garden, Middle Garden (a later addition), and Upper Garden, of which the latter is the most important.
The Imperial Household Agency administers it, and accepts visitors by appointment.
Text adapted from “Shugakuin Imperial Villa” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shugaku-in Imperial Villa ranks #1,750 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #105 of the 296 mapped in Japan. Founded 1659, it is older than 25% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 721 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,399 times in the last 60 days, more than 80% of the atlas. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Kyoto, 6 km away. It is one of the 69 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Kansai. See how Japan compares in the castle statistics.
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