Castle & Palace · Akasaka / Yotsuya

State Guest House, Akasaka Palace 迎賓館赤坂離宮

Japan's only neo-Baroque palace and a National Treasure: a gleaming 1909 granite facade, gilded state rooms and a fountain garden where presidents and kings are received, open to the public on most days when no state guests are in town.

About

Built in 1909 as the residence of the crown prince and designed by Katayama Tokuma, Akasaka Palace is the grandest Western-style building of the Meiji era, a confident answer to Versailles and the Hofburg with Japanese motifs smuggled into the detail: samurai armour in the roof sculpture, chrysanthemum crests, and cloisonne birds and flowers by Namikawa Sosuke in the Kacho-no-Ma. Since 1974 it has served as the State Guest House, and in 2009 it became the first post-Meiji-Restoration building designated a National Treasure. The self-guided route covers the dazzling Sairan-no-Ma with its gilded plaster, the banquet hall, the white-and-gold Hagoromo-no-Ma ballroom and the Asahi-no-Ma, then lets you out onto the main garden with its huge fountain and the full south facade. A separate guided tour visits the Japanese-style annex, a quiet modernist tea pavilion built in 1974. Closures are announced at short notice when foreign dignitaries visit.

Highlights

• South facade and fountain garden, the classic postcard shot of Western-style Tokyo
• Kacho-no-Ma banquet hall with 30 cloisonne panels of birds and flowers
• Hagoromo-no-Ma ballroom with a ceiling painting of the Noh play Hagoromo
• Sairan-no-Ma with gilded plaster, mirrors and Empire-style armour motifs
• Optional guided tour of the 1974 Japanese-style annex and its pond

Tips

• Check the official calendar first: the palace closes on Wednesdays and whenever state guests are in residence.
• Enter through the West Gate on the Yotsuya side; the main gate is only used for state ceremonies.
• The Japanese-style annex tour needs advance online booking and sells out quickly in spring and autumn.
• No photography inside the main building; save your camera for the garden and the facade.
• Afternoon tea and pastries are sold from a garden kitchen car on many days, a pleasant way to linger.

Open in Google Maps · Info checked 2026-10-09

Nearby

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