The Hori Mansion & Gardens

 

The Hori Family Mansion is located in a narrow valley about 9 kilometers from Tsuwano Castle, and I have always presumed they were high-ranking vassals of that domain.

It turns out they are not connected to the domain at all, in fact the five villages around their property were an enclave directly ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate and administered from Omori, at Iwami Ginzan.

The Hori operated the copper and silver mines in the area. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 they started to buy up copper mines all over western Japan, and the 15th-generation family head Hori Reizo earned the nickname Chugoku Copper King.

It was he who built the sukiya-style, two storey guesthouse here called Rakusanso with its pond garden featured in this post.

It is a National Site of Scenic Beauty, and there are actually three gardens here.

There is a small, karesansui garden along the side of the mainhouse which is older than the big pond garden, but on this visit, I didn't photograph it.

Also, across the road, is another garden with multiple ponds called Warakuen, and I only took one photo of it, the final photo in this post.

The main house was built in 1785 and features a three tatami tearoom pictured in photos 3 and 4 above.

The two-storey Rakanso was built between 1897 and 1900

Viewing the garden from the second floor veranda is particularly nice.

The stroll garden features a couple of small bridges, and 17 stone lanterns plus a tall stone pagoda.

There is a small waterfall built into the hillside that borders the garden.

The koi in the pond, when I visited, were all of a golden-yellow breed.

The island in the pond is considered a Dejima, and not a turtle island or a crane island.

For this interested in traditional architecture, both the Edo-period main house and the Meiji-period Rakanso guest house are well worth exploring.

For those interested in gardens, the three gardens are also well worth a visit though I didn't photograph the older, karesansui garden of the main house, nor really explored the Warakuen garden across the road, and my photos of the Rakanso garden are really not all that good

It is quite difficult to reach the Hori residence and gardens without a car. There are only a couple of buses a day. It would be possible by rental cycle, of which there are many in Tsuwano. The upside is that it will not be crowded.

This visit was almost twenty years ago, and I will definitely be making a return visit as I have a deeper interest in the traditional architecture and gardens now.

I will be sure to visit in the late Autumn when the colours will make the gardens more beautiful and perhaps clearer.

The previous post in this series on the delights of Tsuwano was on the colour and pageantry of the Great Spring Festival at Taikodani Inari Shrine.

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