Yatsushiro’s teahouse

Today we are going to take a walk to the Shōhin-ken(松浜軒). This is an old two-story tea house which was built in 1688 (way before Starbucks came to Japan) by Matsui Naoyuki for his ‘kaasan. To get there, head off from the north-western corner of the castle. It’s just a couple of blocks to the west.

There are quite a few old buildings at the entrance. In the picture below on one of the corner roof tiles there’s a circle with 8 smaller circle surrounding it, that is the family crest of the Hosokawa clan.

The crossbeam-less, Heijū style gate. Pass through here then another gate, pay the three-hundred-yen fee and you’re in!

Below is a photo of the main building & garden. The garden is at its best when the irises are in bloom.

Really old glass. Maybe it’s too hard to make out, but the irregularities in the glass made the reflections ripple as you walk past.

This is actually a downpipe, the water runs off the roof, collected by the guttering & down this.

A mossy stone pagoda. You can just see the blooming cherry blossoms in the background.

There you have it guys, yet another reason to get yourself to Kumamoto. What did you guys think? I’d love for you to post your comments below!!

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  1. Nice love the pic they are wonderful. I must say I love the one of the tea house and the garden but all of them are so beautiful!
    Plus are you sure it is historically correct that there were no starbucks in Japan in 1688!! You might check it again lol!
    Like always great post
    Yugo
    from gaijinlife.com

    Comment by Yugo — March 17, 2010 @ 12:15 pm

  2. Beautiful. While I must ashamedly admit that Kumamoto wasn’t really much on my radar, これこぞ見たいね。 Castles are wonderful, but teahouses and the like, old, traditional wooden architecture, really does it for me. Do they actually serve tea here? Can you go inside? Or is it just to walk around the gardens and the exterior of the building?

    I love that drainpipe rope. A brilliant alternative to the kinds of drainpipes (i.e. actual pipes) we use in the West. You know, I always wondered about the chains (infrequently, ropes) at the corners of many traditional buildings. A fun and interesting design element to be sure, but now I guess we have some idea as to their function. (Or am I assuming mistakenly about those chains?)

    Comment by Toranosuke — March 17, 2010 @ 12:51 pm

  3. To answer your question & pool o’zen’s, no, I was unable to go inside. I wonder though, if it wouldn’t be open to the public at certain times of the year. I took some (crappy) interior shots, but they were kinda plain. Actually, there was one of a carved transom that I considered posting but…

    Re: drainpipe. I have seen chain ones before, in Australia & Japan. A variation that I’ve seen at several temples in Japan has what I’d describe as a wire-frame ball (four wires arranged longitudinally making a spherical shape) which links to yet another ball, etc… I remember considering the labour intensity of it all. Anyway, it’s all in the details, isn’t it?

    Comment by admin — March 17, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

  4. This place looks amazing. So the tea house the original building from 1688?

    Comment by Tornadoes28 — March 20, 2010 @ 1:10 am

  5. Tornadoes28, I believe that to be correct. It seems exceptionally old & I can’t say I’ve seen (or noticed) anything quite like before. There are a couple of single-story buildings in Takamatsu’s Ritsurin-koen that look similar, but I suspect they are somewhat younger.

    I wish I had some more details on it, such as when, or if ever there were any renovations done to it.

    Comment by admin — March 20, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

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