Out of Palaceside Building, I have been lingering around Edo Castle (the Imperial Palace) Tayasu Gate for a while.
East of Tayasu Gate is Chidorigafuchi, as you know. West to north is Ushigafuchi, ending at Shimizu Gate. In the photo above, the upper row is Chidorigafuchi and the lower Ushigafuchi; left of each is summer, right is autumn. (Cherry season is near; that another time.)
Kitanomaru Park, caught between these two “fuchi,” had, as this blog wrote on October 13, 2015, the residences of Eisho-in (1578–1642, Ieyasu’s concubine), Tenju-in (1597–1666, Senhime, eldest daughter of the second shogun Hidetada), Ichii-sama (1555–1637, Ieyasu’s concubine Acha-no-tsubone), Tokugawa Tadanaga (1606–1634, Hidetada’s third son, younger brother of the third shogun Iemitsu) and others; after the Meireki Great Fire they became the Tayasu and Shimizu house residences; in the Meiji era the Imperial Guard Division barracks occupied the ground. Kitanomaru Park was decided in 1946 (Showa 21) under the Tokyo Special City Plan as greenery around the Imperial Palace; many former Guard regiment buildings were removed. Forest-park work began in 1963, and in April 1969 it opened to the public in honor of Emperor Showa’s sixtieth birthday. Until then fire, bakufu confiscations and war had changed the buildings one after another.
Kitanomaru Park is a young wood: lawns, ponds and deciduous forest planted after the war — mountain maple, zelkova, konara, kunugi and other satoyama trees, fruiting trees birds like, flowering trees — plus evergreen woods left from before the war at the edges. Nearly half a century after opening, it is just coming into a natural setting as a forest park one with the Imperial Palace.
In the Kitanomaru area, before the park opened, the Science Museum opened in April 1964 and Nippon Budokan, judo venue for the Tokyo Olympics, in October. The National Museum of Modern Art added a Crafts Gallery in November 1977 by converting the former Imperial Guard Division headquarters, besides its new main building.
The East Gardens across Kii-no-kuni Slope are under the Imperial Household Agency, with set hours and no entry at night; Kitanomaru Park is under the Ministry of the Environment. Entry is free 24 hours from Shimizu Gate and Tayasu Gate.
Buildings and more inside Kitanomaru Park I will write bit by bit when I have the chance.