Showing posts with label kikuya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kikuya. Show all posts

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Kikuya Residence South Garden

 


The Kikuya family were wealthy and powerful merchants in the old castle town of Hagi. They were financiers of the ruling Mori Clan nd also were the de facto mayors of the town. Their Edo Period residence is open to the public and I have posted about it before. The gardens are rather nice, especially in the Autumn.


Starting in the Meiji Period, they built two new hpuses to the south of the main residence, one a single storey, and the later one with two storeys and a little more Western.


These were used as guesthouses for wealthy and powerful guests, and in the 1930's a Prime Minister stayed here as did minor members of the imperial family.


Over the years, well into the twentieth century, they created and expanded the gardens around these new houses, and they are now open to the public, though only in the Spring and Autumn.


Sunday, January 24, 2021

Kikuya Residence Garden in Fall

 

The Kikuya Family were the wealthiest family in the castle town of Hagi. Though merchants were ostensibly almost the lowest class in the Edo Period social system, many became very wealthy and financed the upper samurai class and daimyos, as was the case here.


The Kikuya Residence is therefore a good example of a well preserved wealthy merchants property and so had nice gardens. I have posted on the residence and the garden earlier, but these shots are from a later visit I made in the Fall.


The gardens are meant to be enjoyed from inside the residence. After the mwiji Restoration the family constructed a newer, more modern residence next door and that had more expansive, stroll-type gardens.


I will post shots of the newer gardens later.....


Sunday, September 11, 2016

Kikuya Residence


The Kikuyas were a rich merchant family who helped build and run the old castle town of Hagi. Their residence was built in 1602 and is one of the oldest and best preserved example of Edo Period merchant architecture in Japan.


The interiors of the buildings are filled with displays, including an office area. In many ways the Kikuya residence was built way above their station as merchants were the lowest of the 4 classes with only various "non-persons" below them, but as the Edo period went on they became richer and richer and the highest class, the samurai, became poorer and poorer.


The kitchens and domestic areas are also open and filled with artifacts.


Previously I posted on the gardens surrounding the residence, but next up is the neighboring park-like garden that contains a more modern mansion residence


Saturday, May 21, 2016

The Garden at Kikuya Residence Hagi


The Kikuya Residence is a large complex of buildings from the Edo Period belonging to the Kikuya Family in the old castle town of Hagi, Yamaguchi.


Though merchants, and therefore the lowest class in Tokugawa Japan, they were the richest family in the town and great supporters of the Daimyo.


All these photos are from the garden around the oldest cluster of buildings on the main street, but there is also a larger, more park like, stroll garden around the newer mansion house.


Like most Japanese gardens this one is particularly nice in the autumn with the fall colors. I'm sure that at some point in the future I will post some of that.