Gotenyama

Goten(御殿) means a palace. Gotenyama was named for the fact that Tokugawa Ieyasu built his palace in Shinagawa and used it as a venue for taking breaks while engaging in falconry or for tea ceremonies, to which he invited senior officials of the shogunate government. The district is imbued with a particular countenance that is unique to a residential area where the passage of tranquil time is intimately felt and is blessed with a combination of culture and greenery that is rarely encountered in the city. A highly stimulating environment - consisting of the likes of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (which has displayed everything from the works of Western masters to the works of dynamic newcomers on the leading edge of contemporary art in a modern, Western-style structure), the expansive circuit-style gardens of Gotenyama Hills and the various foreign embassies that were drawn to the calm surroundings found here - is one of the great pleasures of this district.