Site of Konoe Mansion

On the campus of Doshisha University stands a stone monument marking where the Konoe family mansion stood from the sixteenth century until its eventual disappearance. The Konoe were among Japan's most powerful aristocratic families, descended from a twelfth-century court official, with the right to serve as imperial regents and advisors. Several Konoe daughters married emperors. No trace of the building remains, but a living connection persists: the weeping cherry trees in the nearby Kyoto Gyoen National Garden were transplanted from the Konoe family's gardens and draw visitors every early spring when they come into bloom.