二条城本丸御殿：2024年9月6日（金）
2024年9月1日より，二条城（京都市中京区二条通堀川西入二条城町）の本丸御殿が18年ぶりに一般公開されている。二条城は，1601（慶長6）年に徳川家康が築城に着手し，天皇より，徳川家康が征夷大将軍職に任ぜられた将軍宣下の儀式をおこなった「江戸幕府の始まり」の場所であり，第15代将軍徳川慶喜が大政奉還の上奏をおこなった「江戸幕府の終わり」の場所でもある。
明治維新により，二条城は徳川将軍家から明治政府に接収され，1884年に皇室の二条離宮となり，1939年に元離宮二条城として京都市に恩賜された。1994年にユネスコの世界遺産（世界文化遺産）に登録された。
本丸御殿とは，文字通り，城の中心区画にある重要な御殿である。1626（寛永3）年に本丸御殿が建てられたものの，天明の大火（1788年）で焼失した。現在の本丸御殿は，京都御所北にあった桂宮家の桂宮御殿の一部を1893（明治26）年に二条城に移築したものである。
本丸御殿は，このたび本格的に修理され，この9月1日より，18年ぶりに事前予約制で一般公開されている。私は，二条城前を毎日通勤途上で通り過ぎているが，約50年前に小学生時代の修学旅行で入ったことはあるものの，それ以来，一度も入城する機会がないまま現在に至っている。
（筆者撮影，2024.9.2）
Nijō Castle Honmaru Palace: Friday, September 6, 2024
Starting from September 1, 2024, the Honmaru Palace of Nijō Castle (Nijōjō-chō, Nijo-dori Horikawa Nishi-iru, Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto City) has been opened to the public for the first time in 18 years. Nijō Castle was originally constructed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who began building it in 1601 (Keichō 6). It is historically significant as the site where Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title of Shogun, marking the ‘beginning of the Edo Shogunate’, and where the 15th Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced the return of political power to the Emperor, symbolizing the ‘end of the Edo Shogunate’.
With the Meiji Restoration, Nijō Castle was confiscated from the Tokugawa Shogunate by the Meiji government and became a detached palace of the Imperial Family in 1884. In 1939, it was gifted to the city of Kyoto as the former Imperial Palace Nijō Castle. The castle was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (World Cultural Heritage) in 1994.
The Honmaru Palace is literally the main palace located in the central area of the castle. Although the original Honmaru Palace was built in 1626 (Kanei 3), it was destroyed by the Great Fire of Tenmei (1788). The current Honmaru Palace was relocated to Nijō Castle in 1893 (Meiji 26) from the Katsura-no-miya Palace, which was originally located to the north of the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
The Honmaru Palace has undergone extensive repairs and, as of September 1st, has been reopened to the public for the first time in 18 years, with admission requiring prior reservations. I pass by Nijō Castle every day on my way to work, but although I visited it during a school trip about 50 years ago when I was in elementary school, I haven't had the opportunity to enter the castle since then.