Gardens at Chofu Mori Mansion

 

The Mori Mansion in Chofu was finished  in 1903, after 5 years of construction.

In 1902, Emperor Meiji stopped here twice, on his way to Kumamoto and on his return journey.

The mansion was built for Motoshi Mori, the 14th and final Chofu Mori Lord.

It was their main residence until 1918. It was donated to Shimonoseki in 1948 when the family moved to Tokyo.

It was renovated and opened to the public in 1998.

The mansion is fairly large, about 10,000 sq m's, so is worth a visit for those interested in traditional architecture, but the highlight must be the gardens.

There is a large stroll-garden with a pond and also a karesansui section.

Then there is a Shoin garden, a courtyard garden, and a teahouse garden...

The gardens and grounds have plenty of maple trees, so is an excellent Autumn leaves viewing spot, as is the nearby Chofuteien Garden.

I took so many photos while visiting that I have split this post into two parts with the second part having a further 28 photos....

The previous post was on the nearby Kozanji Temple with its National Treasure Buddha Hall and moss garden.

If you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the most recent posts.

Muroya no Sono Merchant Mansion and Gardens

 

This is one of the largest Edo-period merchant residences in all of Japan that still stands.

It is located in Yanai, a small river port on the south coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Muroya was the trading name for the Oda Family who were one of the biggest oil traders in Western Japan.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the primary oil traded would have been rapeseed oil, which I believe is marketed as canola oil in the west. The Japanese rarely used oil in cooking, so its main use would have been lighting.

At their peak the Oda family owned a fleet of 50 trading ships and operated over the area from Kyushu to Osaka.

The property is open to the public as a museum, and was so full of features and displays that I have split it into two large separate posts.

The property is huge, encompassing more than 2,500  square metres and with internal floorspace of more than 1,500 square metres.

The street frontage was 14 meters wide, but the property extended 119 meters ( see second photo of the post)

Such a long, narrow property was known as "sleeping palce of an eel"

It consists of 11 buildings with a total of 35 rooms.

As well as the main family residence, there is a main warehouse, an accounting house, a rice warehouse, and a tooshed.

Additionally there are stables, tenements for servants and workers, and an oil-pressing room.

Most of the rooms are filled with artifacts and displays relating to the room, and I will cover these in the next post.

There are several gardens, a large one planted in the main courtyard area, another for the main house, and several "pocket" gardens .

The property is next to the river at the eastern end of the historic trading town of Yanai.

It is a Historic Preservation District known for its white walls and goldfish lanterns.

I will cover Yanai in later posts. I like Yanai a lot and I highly recommend a visit.

I was visiting early on day 19 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. The previous post was on my walk down the coast to Yanai from Iwakuni.

If you would like to subscribe by email just leave your email in the comments below. It will not be published and made public. I post new content almost everyday, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.