Akasaka Palace 迎賓館赤坂離宮
The only habitable 国宝: garden 300 yen, palace and garden 1,500, closed on Wednesdays.
Built between 1899 and 1909 by the court architect Katayama Tōkuma as the residence of the Crown Prince, the neo-Baroque palace did not please Emperor Meiji and was little lived in; it became the home of the future Emperor Shōwa from 1924. After the war it housed the National Diet Library and other public offices for years, until in 1967 the government decided to turn it into the State Guest House: the renovation, directed by Murano Tōgo for the main building and by Taniguchi Yoshirō for the Japanese annex, cost 10.8 billion yen and was completed in March 1974. The first state guest, in November, was the American president Gerald Ford. The palace remained closed to the public, apart from three days in 2011, until it opened permanently from April 2016; on 8 December 2009 it became a National Treasure, the first post-war building to receive the designation.
Tokyo
Yotsuya, Aoyama-itchome
