Keywords
Architecture
Aristocratic Dwellings
Also mikawa 御溝. Ditches surrounding each building in the Imperial Palace. The present palace, Kyoto Gosho 京都御所, has ditches laid with stones cut in geometric shapes. However, it is thought that these ditches were more like small man-made streams in the Heian period. The stream flowing north to south past the steps of the Seiryōden 清涼殿 was often the subject of poetry in the Heian period.