Showing posts with label matsue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matsue. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Kounkaku Matsue



In the grounds of Matsue Castle stands quite an elegant Western-style building called Kounkaku.


It was built in 1902-3 as a lodging for the Meiji Emperor. The emperor made half a dozen grand tours around the country, part of the governments program to instill a sense of nationhood among the population using the emperor as a unifying symbol. 


All across the country towns and cities built such places in the hopes of attracting a visit from the emperor.


In the end, Meiji didn't visit Matsue, but his son, the Crown Prince did, in 1907, and he stayed there.


Now it is used for a variety of exhibitions and also houses a cafe.


Many similar, Western-style buildings were built, in the early days as residences for foreigners, like the mansion for foreign engineers in Kagoshima.


Some of the Japanese nobility built them for themselves, like the Jinpukaku in Tottori. However, many smaller, much less pretentious Western-style buildings were used for such things as post offices, hospitals, local government offices, etc. Like this former hospital near Kurume.


The previous post in this series on Matsue was Matsue Castle itself.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Matsue Castle

 


Matsue Castle is considered to be one of the 12 original castles remaining in Japan.


There are many more castles throughout Japan, but what distinguishes the 12 is that their central tower, tenshu in Japanese, commonly called keep in English, is not a modern reconstruction. The keep at Matsue was registered as a National Treasure in 2015.


Matsue castle was built in just 5 years by Horio Yoshiharu and completed in 1611.


He was given control of the domain following the Battle of Sekigahara and at that time the domain castle was Gassan Toda, located south of what is now Yasugi.


Though Gassan Toda was a great castle, he decided that the area around it was not suitable for the building of a castle town and so selected the area that became Matsue.


The castle and domain passed to the Matsudaira clan, and Matsudaira Fumio (1751-1818) a renowned tea master was responsible for making Matsue a centre of the Tea Ceremony.

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The castle has a large and extensive moat system that connects to several waterways and boat trips around the castle are a popular activity.


The inside of the keep is explored using steep stairways and there are many exhibits of samurai armor and castle-related displays. From the top, there are great views over Matsue and Lake Shinji.


In 1873 the Japanese government began dismantling the vast majority of the castles in the country, and in Matsue all the former buildings were removed but the keep was spared due to local pressure. The keep has six floors, though appears from the outside to have five. Its black walls led to it being given the nickname Chidori, "plover" Castle.


The extensive castle grounds are now a park known for cherry blossom viewing. There are also several shrines and other buildings within the grounds that I will cover in later posts.


The samurai district on the north side of the moat has some of Matsue's top attractions, including Lafcadio Hearns former home, a restored samurai residence, and the Meimei-an Teahouse and garden.


The previous post in this series on Matsue was on the weeping cherry tree of nearby Senjuin Temple.


Thursday, November 9, 2023

Weeping Cherry of Senjuin Temple

 


Senjyuin Temple to the northeast of Matsue Castle is a hidden cherry blossom viewing spot.


The temple was moved here from Gassan Toda, the site of the original domain castle and rebuilt here when the new Matsue Castle was built. It occupies the strategic NE position to protect the castle from evil influences in much the same way that Enryakuji protects Kyoto.


It has some regular cheery trees but the pride of place is a shidare zakura, a weeping cherry, said to be at least 200 years old.


The venerable tree has its branches supported by a framework of bamboo and there were a couple of photographers there taking pics of the ephemeral blossoms. I did not know it was blooming before I visited.


I have visited Senjyuin Temple numerous times, and as a temple on the Izumo Kannon Pilgrimage I posted about it a long time ago.


The previous post in this series exploring Matsue was the nearby Togaku Zen Temple and its intriguing statues.


Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Togakuji Temple Matsue

 


Togakuji is a large Soto Zen temple located in the Okudani area of Matsue City, north of the castle.


The entrance passes through a nice raked gravel garden with pine trees.


Throughout the grounds are numerous "cute" statues


As well as many mizuko jizo


This Fudo Myo is in the same hall that houses the 500 Rakan, or arhats, disciples of the Buddha.


They were carved locally between the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century.


The temple was built by the mother of Kojiro Horio, a grandchild of Yoshiharu Horio, the head of the Matsue Domain and builder of Matsue Castle.


Kojiro died young in 1609 and in 1610 the memorial temple was built for him.


Originally located near Gassan Toda Castle, it was moved to its current site in 1613 following the building of Matsue Castle.


The large cemetery contains the tombs and graves of quite a few important local dignitaries.


The area of Okudani is not well visited by tourists but there are several more nice temples and shrines in the vicinity.


The previous post in this series was on the Meimei-an Teahouse Gardens just north of the castle.

Monday, July 3, 2023

Meimei-an Teahouse Gardens

 


A Teahouse Garden, called roji or chatei, differs from the other two main types of Japanese garden, the karesansui, dry garden, often called zen garden, and the chisen-teien, or pond garden, and of course shares some features with them.


The Teahouse is meant to represent a rustic mountain hut, and the roji is what is passed through to reach the teahouse and therefore is the first part of the tea ceremony itself.


These photos are from Meimei-an, a  traditional teahouse in Matsue associated with the great Tea Master Fumai Matsudaira.


A fundamental feature of the roji will be the stones that make up the path to the teahouse. Tobiishi are stepping stones, and Nobedan, sometimes called tatami-ishi, are paving stones.


The path will pass by a Tsukubai, a washbasin where the visitor will purify themselves. Usually there will be a lantern behind the tsukubai.


All of the different stones arranged around the tsukubai have different names and functions.


These last two photos are of the garden of the Akayama Tea Ceremony Hall, open to the public where visitors can enjoy a cup of matcha with traditional sweets while enjoying the view of the Meimei-an Teahouse


Friday, June 30, 2023

Meimei-an Teahouse

 


Meimei-an is an Edo Period teahouse in Matsue, Shimane, with connections to Matsudaira Fumai, the famous Tea Ceremony Master who was Daimyo of the Matsue Domain and whose castle can be seen from the teahouse.


It was built in 1779 and originally stood nearby in the grounds of the Arisawa Family, high-ranking vassals of the domain. Fumai was instrumental in bringing Tea Ceremony culture to his domain and vassals and he was a frequent visitor to Meimei-an.


It was dismantled and rebuilt in Tokyo in the Meiji Period but later came back to Matsue where it moved several times before its current location where it was restored in 1966.


It is the type of teahouse styled after a rustic mountain hut that was popularized by the great Tea Master Sen no Rikyu.


It is not possible to enter Meimei-an, but can be looked into through open doors and screens.


Immediately adjacent to Meomei-an is the Akayama Tea Ceremony Hall used as a site for various Tea Ceremony groups but also open to the public and where you can have a green tea with sweets while enjoying the view of Meimei-an.


I will cover the gardens around Meimei-an in the next post. Fumai Matsudaira made Matsue one of the three main tea ceremony centres of Japan and there are numerous other sites around the town connected to him and the tea ceremony.


In the nearby Matsue History Museum is a reconstruction of another Teahouse favored by Fumai as well as displays on him and the tea ceremony. Not far from the castle is Gesshoji Temple, the Matsudaira family temple where they were buried. It also has a collection of historic tea ceremony utensils owned by Fumai, as well as one of his favorite gardens.


The previous post in this series exploring Matsue was the samurai mansion just below Meimei-an.


The next post is on the roji, the garden of the teahouse.