Garden & Teahouse at Matsue History Museum

 

The Matsue History Museum is just across the moat from Matsue Castle and opened in 2011.

It was built on the site of the residence of the senior retainer of the domain and was built to resemble a high-ranking retainers residemce. The museum is fronted by the original Eco-Period Nagayamon.

Matsue is known as one of the three centres of Tea Culture in Japan, thanks to Fumai Matsudaira, the daimyo and tea master.

The museum has extensive displays on Fumai and the tea ceremony as well as the history of the town and castle.

The cafe of the museum, where matcha with traditional sweets is the main offering, looks out on a small traditional garden.

Though modern, and built for the museum, it is a traditional Izumo-style garden, one feature of which is stepping stones raised higher than in other parts of the country.

Like most gardens it is planted with seasonal plants so changes throughout the year. These photos were from a couple of different visits at different times of the year.

The top of the castle keep can be seen from within the cafe.

From the cafe a corridor leads to an old teahouse with links to Sen no Rikyu.

I had always thought this was a replica, but apparently not, it is the oldest teahouse remaining in Matsue.

It was designed either by Sen no Rikyu, or under his guidance, in the late 16th century and ended up in Matsue. In the Meiji Period it was dismatled and stored at the Yakumo Honjin.

The previous post in this series exploring Matsue and Izumo was on the gardens at the Prefectural Office next to the castle.