Matsue Buke Yashiki & Gardens

 

A Buke Yashiki is best translated as samurai residence, and this one in the castle town of Matsue belonged to middle -ranked samurai.

It is located on the north side of the moat around the castle on what is now called Shiome Nawate, and is close to another former samurai residence that was the home of Lafcadio Hearn.

Starting in 2016 the residence and gardens have been restored bsed upon Meiji-era drawings of the property.

The rear garden is in Izumo style.

It was originally built in 1733 and it is believed that Kobei Shiomi, after whom this street is now named, lived here. Higher ranking samurai lived across the moat within the castle walls.

Prior to the renovations, it actually wasn't much of an attraction, but with now it is well worth a visit.

The previous post in this series on Izumo and Matsue was the nearby Lafcadio Hearn home and garden.

Lafcadio Hearn's House & Gardens

Lafcadio Hearn's House & Gardens

Lafcadio Hearn was one of the first foreign writers in Japan whose books are still very popular today. Kwaidan, his book of ghost stories, and Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan are two titles that are perhaps the most well-known, and the latter is what I have shamelessly cribbed for the title of my own blog.

He spent about a year living in the castle town of Matsue in Shimane where he gathered much of the material for "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" and where he married and lived with his wife, the daughter of a local samurai.

The house where he lived for six months is located on Shiomi Nawate, a street of former samurai homes on the north bank of the castle moat.

Hearn, who took Japanese citizenship and the name Koizumi Yakumo, was particularly fond of the gardens in his samurai home.

It is not a very large house, though there is a little furniture and some artwork around. There is almost no infomation, for that you need to go next door.

Immediately adjacent to the former residence is the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum which has a lot of permanent displays on Lafcadio Hearn and his life and works as well as changing temporary exhibitions on related subjects. On a visit, you may meet the curator, a great-grandson of Hearn.

The previous post in the series is the Gesshoji Temple garden.

Gesshoji Temple Gardens

Japan Travel

Gesshoji Temple is located against the hillside to the west of Matsue castle, one of the dozen remaining castles in Japan.

It was originally a small Zen temple called Toun-ji, but in 1664 the first of the Matsudaira lords of the castle, Naomasa, the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, changed it to a Jodo temple and installed the mortuary tablet of his mother here.

Following Naomasa's death, his son built his father's tomb here and since then it has been their family temple.

I recently posted on some of the tombs and the "giant" tortoise made famous by Lafcadio Hearn.

The temple grounds are known for their hydrangeas, but there is also a formal garden.

This is in Izumo-style, a feature of which is rectangular stones intermixed with rounded stones.

The garden was enjoyed by Matsudaira Fumai, a renowned tea-master.

Adjacent to the main garden is a smaller garden viewable from the tea room.

Later I will show some of the statues at the temple and some of the artifacts in the treasure house.

Gesshoji Temple Matsudaira Tombs

Gesshoji Temple Matsudaira Tombs

Gesshoji Temple lies to the west of Matsue Castle and was used by the ruling Matsudaira clan as their funerary temple where tombs of succeeding daimyo were built

Consequently, the grounds are rather spacious, and not that well visited. 

The tomb of each daimyo has its own gate and there are plenty of stone lanterns given by vassals.

The gardens have a lot of hydrangeas, so in June and July it sees more visitors.

There are also Irises, cherry blossoms, and of course autumn foliage. There is a treasure hall with tea utensils and other artifacts from the clan, and a fine garden which I will cover in a later post.

Some of the gates to the tombs have some nice carvings, one in particular, the tomb of the 6th lord,  has a fine pair of carvings.

Thanks to Lafcadio Hearn, who lived nearby for less than a year, the most famous thing in the grounds is the giant stone turtle. He told how the turtle would wander around the area at night so the local residents placed the huge slab of stone on its back to prevent it....

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 32 Zenkoji

The penultimate temple of the Izumo 33 pilgrimage is located just south of downtown Matsue in the township of Nogi. It is said that the pine tree in front of the Kannon-do was planted by General Nogi, one of the heroes of the Russo-Japanese War who is known for his ritual suicide following the desth of Emperor Meiji. It is just coincidence that the town is also called Nogi.

The Kannon-do was originally located some distance away at a temple called Fukuoji and was moved here about 350 years ago. The monument in front of the main hall is a memorial to the dead of Iwo Jima.

Zenko-ji belongs to the Jishu sect, a branch of Pure Land Buddhism founded by the monk Ippen, and is not such a common sect, in fact I don't remember having visited a Jishu temple before.

It's a relatively small, urban temple but with quite a few statues in the grounds including this fine Fudo Myo and this one below who had lost his head at some point.

Terutoko Shrine

Terutoko Shrine is located in the middle of a small, low, wooded hill in the suburbs of Matsue northeast of the castle.

It is listed in the Izumno Fudoki, meaning that it existed a millenia before Matsue and its castle were built. Then it was known as Arawahi-sha.

Later it was known as Teratoko Shrine, and the kami was Teratoko Myojin.

In the Meiji Period its name was changed from Teratoko to Terutoko, thereby removing the reference to temple in its name. The kami was renamed Amaterasu, a common occurrence during the creation of the new imperial-centered state religion. many kami were renamed to bring them under the umbrella of imperial lineage.

2021 Update

A recent look on googlemaps shows that the path I took through woodland and bamboo to reach thye shrine has now gone. Clearcut and ade into a park The slopes either side of the shrine have also been clearcut in preparation of development.

Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage Temple 26 Senjyu-In

The 26th temple of the pilgrimage is located on a hillside northeast of Matsue Castle, and is known for its views over the rooftops towards the castle and for a 350 year old Weeping Cherry tree.

The temple was reconstructed on this site after the construction of Matsue Castle. It was originally in Hirose which is where the domains castle was before Matsue. This location was chosen so the temple could guard the NE direction of the castle, the direction from which demons arrived.

It is a Shingon temple and the honzon is the 11 faced Kannon.

In a clearing in the woods above the temple was a small abandoned shrine. There was no sign and it had two small buddhist figurines of Kobo Daishi in front of it, but most interesting was this group of monkey statues.

I can find no information about them, though mny first thought would be a connection to Sanno Shinto and Hiyoshi Shrine, but that was Tendai not Shingon. The larger figure seems to be holding rice.

Matsue City

The design on the main manhole design in Matsue City is a view of Shiomi Nawate Street which runs along the moat to the north of Matsue Castle.

This was one of the areas around the castle where samurai lived, and it is now one of the most popular tourist sites in the city.

There are some shops and a restaurant or two....

And an old samurai house, complete with mannequins, that is open to the public...

Lafcadio Hearns former residence is also here and open to the public, as well as a small museum on him.