Hirata Honjin Gardens, Mansion, & Museums

 

The Hirata Honjin Museum is located on a hillside overlooking the old town of Hirata near the shore of Lake Shinji.

A honjin was a property used as a guesthouse by feudal lords when they traveled within their domain and this one was the residence of the wealthy Honkisa family who made their fortune locally with sake brewing and trading cotton.

The buildings and most importantly the garden were dismantled and moved here from their original site about 2 kilometers away.

It is an Izumo-style garden, karensansui, with the arrangement of stepping stones that marks it as uniquely Izumo.

It is sometimes referred to as Gentan-style after Sawa Gentan, a gardener brought to Izumo by The famous daimyo Matsudaira Fumai who had a hand in designing many of the gardens in the Izumo and Matsue area.

Unfortunately, the garden cannot be entered, however, it can be enjoyed from the main room of the house.

Some say that the garden can be best appreciated in the rain when the wet stones shine....

However, visitors are allowed to enter the gardens that lead from the main house to the Yuyuan Teahouse.

The Yuyuan is a Shoin-style teahouse of 4.5 tatami.

It is not open to visitors, but can be rented.

It was reproduced using the original Edo period plans.

As well as the gardens, the whole house is open to visitors.

On display are artworks and artifacts from the family, including some samurai armour.

The traditional bathroom and toilets are also open.

There are also two large, modern, galleries that show temporary exhibitions, and sometimes more works from the family collection of prints and paintings.

These sometimes  have an entry fee, though I must stress that everything else is free.

And yet there is more......

Some large storehouses have been converted into a Folk Crafts Museum....

In many ways this place is similar to the Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum which also offers gardens, traditional architecture, and exhibitions with no entry fee. If anything The Hirata Honjin has the edge in terms of displays and gardens.

In the entrance hall you will see a big example of a local artform, Isshiki Kazari. I have briefly touched on this before, in this post.

In the old section of Hirata you will be able to see many more examples of isshiki kazari and also visit a wealthy merchant home and gardens, that while not as spectacular as the Hirata Honjin, is well worth a visit.

For those into gardens, less than 2 kilometers from Hirata Honjin is Kokokuji, a zen temple with a small but excellent garden. It and the Hirata Hoinjin garden always appear in the top gardens list of the American magazine Journal of Japanese Gardening. The top garden in that magazine is always the Adachi Museum Garden, also in Shimane.

The previous posts in this series on Izumo and Matsue were on Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum and Gardens.

Kannabiji Temple 11 on the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage

 

Kannabiji is one of the oldest temples in the area I live. It was founded in 746 and it is said that Kobo Daishi later visited and converted it to Shingon.

It was located halfway up a mountain and was supported by the Ogasawara Clan who operated from the nearby Maruyama Castle. In 1872 the area suffered a big earthquake known as the Hamada Earthquake and it caused the spring at the temple to dry up, so the temple was forced to relocate to its current location.

When I visited in early May the azaleas and botanzakura were in full bloom. In the grounds is a very large weeping cherry and by the gate a huge gingko. These last two may have been in the old temple that stood here before Kannabiji was moved here.

I was visiting on day 6 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon pilgrimage, with Kannabiji being number 11. It is also temple 22 on the recently rediscovered Iwami Ginzan Kannon pilgrimage.

The honzon is a Kokuzo Boddhisattva, not a very well-known bodhisattva, but the one that was instrumental in the training of Kobo Daishi..

The Nio are quite cool, and by the side of the main building are a set of rakan statues, (last photo). I cant remember seeing the Kannon statue.

The priest lives nearby in a modern house, but a huge, traditional house sits to the left of the main hall.

The main altar bis quite colourful, with some excellent dragon paintings.

The storehouse is actually a small museum whose prize possession is the remains of a set of samurai armour that dates back to the Heian period and is believed to be the second or third oldest samurai armour in Japan. It is not much to look at but at the art museum in Sakurae Town is a full replica.

On this leg of my walk I walked the route "backwards" from my house upriver. The previous post was on the Zen temple in my village, Hikasaji.

A Sunrise Walk Down the Matsuura River

Monday, March 24th, 2014, and I take the first train out of Sasebo heading north.

The sun comes up as I am approaching Hizen Nagano from where I will continue on with day 72 of my walk along the Kyushu pilgrimage.

These very early morning walks are often one of the highlights of these walks I do.

Heading north along the Matsuura River, the valley is initially covered in a mist which somehow makes the light very bright. A white light rather than the warm yellow of sunrise light.

The Matsuura River starts in the mountains near Arita and heads roughly north until reaching the sea at Karatsu, my destination for the day.

Though there is a railway line running down the river valley, there are no big settlements, and nothing of note to visit until I reach Ochi, about two hours later.

Here I will have to head up a tributary of the main river to visit the first pilgrimage temple of the day.

The previous post was on my visit to Sasebo port the evening before.

Dokurakuan Tea House & Sankan Sanro Roji Gardens

 

The Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum is a must-visit site for those interested in Japanese gardens.

As well as a fine example of an Izumo-style karesansui garden attached to a huge mansion, which I covered yesterday, it also has examples of roji, the small gardens associated with tea houses and the tea ceremony.

The Dokurakuan is a replica of a teahouse designed by Sen no Rikyu, probably the most famous of all tea masters.

It was originally built in Uji, near Kyoto, but passed through many owners until ending in the hands of Matsudaira Fumai, the daimyo of Matsue domain who was a famous tea master in his own right. 

He retired early and passed the domain on to his son so he could retire to his estate in Edo where he built a huge garden with many teahouses including the Dokurakuan.

A teahouse is usually approached through a type of garden called roji.

here at the Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum  the replica Dokurakuan is reached through three gardens called Sankan Sanro.

Called Outer, Middle, and Inner, the three gardens are quite distinct and separated by walls and gates.

It is said the Sankan Sanro was designed by Fumai himself.

The teahouse and gardens were recreated using old drawings and paintings of the original.

As well as the mansion with its Izumo-style garden, and the Dokurakuan and Sankan Sanro, there is yet another garden here. A modern teahouse where visitors can enjoy tea and sweets has its own garden, but I have no photos as I didn't visit.

The museum and gardens are free to visit, though there may be some entry fees to special temporary exhibitions that are in the big galleries.

The previous post was on the Izumo mansion and Garden. Not far away are a couple of other traditional properties with nice gardens, the Hirata Honjin, and the Yakumo Honjin.