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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Imimiya Shrine

 

Imimiya Shrine in Chofu is quite a large shrine with roots in the mythic past.

According to the myth-legend, Emperor Chuai and his consort Jingu stayed here during their campaign to subjugate the Kumaso people of Kyushu and erected a shrine and performed rituals here.

Later, in 728, the spirit of Chuai was transferred here from Kashii Shrine in what is now Fukuoka.

Jingu and Ojin, were enshrined as comanion shrines and so there were three seperate shrines.

Following one of the numerous fires that destroyed buildings, the three were  combined together and the shrine renamed Imimiya.

One of the major secondary shrines within the grounds is the Arakuma Inari Shrine.

A champion sumo wrestler, Kaiketsu Masaki, used to pray here every year before the Kyushu tournament, and later another wrestler, Ono Kuniyasu, was also assoiated with the shrine.

Consequently, there is a small sumo museum next to the shrine, and may explain the small sumo wrestler-like stone figures.

Other shrines within Imimiya are a Wakamiya Shrine enshrining Emperor Nintoku, a Takara Shrine enshrining Takeuchi no Sukune.

There is a Yasaka Shrine which, along with Susano and his family, also enshrines 42 other kami from the time of "shrine consolidation", the offiial name for the program that closed local shrines. There is a Soja Shrine, which was a shrine where all the kami from the area were gathered to enable the local governor to avoid travelling to perform his duties, and another shrine to Ojin.

Two small islets just off the coast, Manju and Kanju, linked to another myth about Empress Jingu, are also considered part of the shrine precincts.

Imimiya Shrine has a whole slew of festivals throughout the year, but the most interesting is the Kazukata Garden Festival held in August. It is referred to as the "strangest festival in the world", although I have been unable to find the exact source of this accolade.

To understand the festval we must refer to another myth-legend, that of Jinrin. Jinrin is one of most popular kagura dances in my area, though I must admit I never delved into the story before, other than the good guy-bad guy motif.

While encamped here, Emperor Chuai and his army were attacked by the Kumaso. It is said that this was at the instigation of Jinrin from Sila, one of the three kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula. It is also said that Jinrin led the attack, and was a fearsome figure that killed many of  Chuai's soldiers, and so Chuai himself took up a bow and arrow and slew Jinrin.

The head of Jinrin, with the visage of a demon, was buried here and the emperor's soldiers danced round the spot with raised spears. The stone covering the buried head is the Oniishi in the shrine and the focal point of the festival.

During the night of the festival, women and girls carry lanterns, and the men and boys carry banners atop bamboo poles, and everyone dances around the Oniishi.

So far, nothing seems to explain why this might be considered a strange festival, until you consider that some of the bamboo poles are 30 meters high and weigh up to 100 kilograms.

There is a photo at the end of this post showing some of the poles, and a link to a video of the festival...

The photo below is a monument to silkworms. According to the myth, a Chinese Emperor brought silkworms with him to this spot, and so sericulture began in Japan.

The previous post was on the nearby gardens and mansion of the Mori Clan

Below is a photo I took on an earlier visit to the shrine during August. Unfortunately we could not stay until the evening to watch the festival, but could see all the huge bamboo poles used in the festival. Here is a link to a youtube video I found on the festival.

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