Inside Kyoto GyoenInside

The Kyoto Imperial Palace and Kyoto Gyoen National Garden are closely connected, but they are not the same place.

The Imperial Palace was once the residence of Japan’s emperors and the setting for imperial court ceremonies. Kyoto Gyoen is the vast national garden that surrounds it.

Today, anyone may enter and walk through the grounds freely. During the Edo period, however, this area was home to more than 140 residences belonging to members of the imperial family and court nobility.

After Emperor Meiji moved to Tokyo in 1869, many court nobles also left Kyoto. Their former residential district was eventually cleared and transformed into the national garden seen today.

Kyoto Gyoen extends from Imadegawa Street in the north to Marutamachi Street in the south, with Karasuma Street along its western side and Teramachi Street to the east.

The grounds stretch approximately 0.8 miles from north to south and 0.4 miles from east to west. A walk around the perimeter covers roughly 2.5 miles.

There are nine named gates and five additional entrances leading into the garden. Together, they are traditionally described as kyūmon gokō—“nine gates and five openings.”

Despite its location in the center of Kyoto, the garden is filled with broad gravel paths and mature trees.

Visitors come to see the Imperial Palace, but they are not the only people here. I also saw runners, families taking walks, and people spending quiet moments beneath the trees or on benches.

Kyoto Gyoen is a place where people encounter the history of Kyoto. At the same time, it remains part of everyday life for those who live in the city.

In May 2026, a restaurant named Kyoto Gyoen Nakadachiuri Gomon Higaki opened inside the Nakadachiuri Rest House.

Located on the western side of the Imperial Palace, the building continues to serve as a public rest area that anyone can use freely, even after the restaurant’s opening.

From the eastern terrace, visitors can look toward the Imperial Palace. The restaurant serves Japanese set meals featuring ingredients and culinary traditions associated with Kyoto, along with Western-inspired dishes and Japanese sweets.

Within one week of its opening, I visited three times.

The reasons were the quality of the food and the setting itself.

After walking through Kyoto Gyoen, I could sit down for a carefully prepared meal without leaving the garden. Each dish was thoughtfully presented, and the experience was different from what I might have expected from a restaurant inside a public rest facility.

One of the things that stayed with me most was the onigiri.

In recent years, onigiri—Japanese rice balls—have become increasingly familiar in the United States. They can now be found not only in Japanese and Asian grocery stores but also in shops specializing in onigiri.

Most of the onigiri seen in American stores are designed for convenience, wrapped in plastic film or placed in clear containers.

The onigiri I ordered at Higaki arrived differently.

It was wrapped in the natural outer sheath of bamboo.

Before plastic packaging became widespread, bamboo sheaths were traditionally used in Japan to wrap foods such as onigiri, sushi, and sweets.

Once dried, a bamboo sheath can be moistened to make it soft and flexible enough to fold around food. A narrow strip can also be torn from the sheath and used to tie the package closed.

This was not the original form of onigiri itself. It was, however, one of the traditional ways in which onigiri was once wrapped and carried in Japan.

The bamboo wrapping did not reveal immediately what was inside.

First, I untied it. Then I unfolded the layers of bamboo one by one.

Even though I already knew that onigiri was waiting inside, opening the package felt a little like opening a treasure box or a gift. There was a genuine sense of anticipation in that small moment.

The meal began before I tasted the food. It began with untying the wrapping and discovering what had been placed inside.

At a restaurant that opened in 2026, I encountered onigiri presented in a material that has long been part of Japan’s culture of wrapping and carrying food.

A place once filled with the residences of imperial family members and court nobles is now a national garden open to everyone.

And within it, a new place has emerged where Kyoto’s food culture can be encountered in the present day.