Nijo Castle Coloring Pages

A castle in Kyoto built by Tokugawa Ieyasu

Nijo Castle is a castle located in Kyoto.
In 1603, it was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who started the Edo Shogunate.
It was built to protect the Kyoto Imperial Palace where the Emperor lived, and to be a place for the Shogun to stay when he visited Kyoto.
In 1994, it was chosen as a World Heritage site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto."
Its official name is Moto-Rikyu Nijo Castle.

The place where the Edo period ended

Nijo Castle's Ninomaru Palace is also famous as the place where the Edo period ended.
In 1867, the 15th Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, announced in the Grand Hall of Ninomaru Palace that he would return the government to the Emperor.
This is called the Taisei Hokan (Restoration of Imperial Rule).
It is a castle built by Ieyasu and wrapped up by Yoshinobu, so it watched over both the beginning and the end of the Edo period!

A lookout tower at the castle corner

The first coloring page shows the Southeast Corner Watchtower standing at the southeast corner of the castle.
It is a two-story building with white walls sitting on top of stone walls.
Long ago, people watched the outside from here to protect the castle.
Try to find the triangular roof shape and the small windows!

A palace and Karamon gate full of decorations

The second picture is the entrance to Ninomaru Palace.
On the large wooden panel under the roof that curves like a wave, you can see five birds with long tail feathers carved flying and resting among flowers.
Under the birds, there is also water flowing like waves.
The third picture is the Karamon Gate standing in front of Ninomaru Palace.
Under the roof, it is packed with colorful carvings of things like cranes, pine trees, bamboo, plum blossoms, and shishi lions.
Try to color it while looking for what kind of creatures are hiding inside!

A moat surrounding the large castle grounds

Nijo Castle is a very large castle surrounded by stone walls and a moat.
Inside the outer moat, there is another inner moat, protecting it twice as well.
In the innermost area called the Honmaru, you can find the keep platform and the Honmaru Palace, which was moved here later from an imperial family's residence in the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden.
Cherry blossoms in spring and autumn leaves in fall add beautiful colors to the castle's stone walls and white walls.
The Southeast Corner Watchtower from the first picture also stands at the corner of the moat, reflecting its image on the water.
When you visit Nijo Castle, entering from the East Ote-mon Gate is the traditional way to go.
Once you walk through the gate, you will see the Karamon Gate right away!

White walls and dark roofs

For the Southeast Yagura turret in the 1st coloring page, leave the white walls plain white like the paper.
The roof looks real if you make it dark gray, and change the stone wall slightly for each stone using gray and light brown.
If you add light gray just under the eaves where shadows fall, it will look 3D!

The Karamon Gate shines with gold, black, and many colors

The decorations on the Karamon Gate and the palace entrance use a lot of gold and yellow.
Color the round metal fittings yellow or orange, and the wood around them black or dark brown to make the gold pop!
The cranes are white, the pines are green, the plum blossoms are pink, and the lions are orange. Changing the color for each carving makes it look very fancy!

Use dark colors for the roof curves

For the roofs that curve like waves, trace the edges with dark brown to make the shape stand out.
Color the roof tiles gray and the sky light blue, and leave the clouds white.
The 3rd coloring page has many tiny details, so sharpening your colored pencils and coloring bit by bit is the secret!
Line it up with the Himeji Castle and Osaka Castle coloring pages to compare the castles.

Find the living things hidden in the carvings

Many creatures are hidden in the carvings of the Karamon Gate on the 3rd coloring page.
Before you color, try tracing with your finger to find the cranes, lions, pine trees, and bamboo!
If you color them one by one as you find them, you will not get lost even with detailed pictures.
It is also a great idea to take your time and color one picture over a few days!

It grew bigger to welcome the Emperor

The Ninomaru-goten Palace you see today was fixed up in 1626 to welcome Emperor Gomizunoo to the castle.
Nijo Castle was also made much bigger at this time.
The 6 buildings of Ninomaru-goten Palace are listed as National Treasures.

The castle tower is gone now

Nijo Castle used to have a 5-story castle tower, but it burned down when lightning struck it in 1750.
Now, only the stone tower base remains where the castle tower used to be.
Kinkaku-ji Temple and Kiyomizu-dera Temple are also World Heritage sites in the same "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" group.

Karamon Gate became pretty again after repairs

Over many years, the colors on Karamon Gate faded, and its decorations got damaged.
So, people spent years repairing it, bringing back its bright colors and shiny gold decorations.
When you look at the real Karamon Gate, check out the colors of the detailed carvings!
Fixing each wooden carving carefully takes a very long time.
Old buildings are passed down to the future by repairing them like this.
People will keep protecting it by fixing it little by little.