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According to the private biographical writings of the temple, this temple was built in 1461. After being destroyed by fire during Onin-no-ran, Japan’s longest and largest civil war in the 15th century, it was rebuilt at the present site in the 16th century.  The temple is one of the sub-temples of nearby Tenryu-ji Buddhist Temple, a World Heritage, and its garden is noted particularly for fresh maple foliage.  And the garden is skillfully designed to be enhanced by its surrounding scenery of well-known Arashiyama hills. In this connection, the garden was introduced in a collection of the noted gardens in Kyoto issued in the 18th century.  The first photo shows a big rock with moss on top.  As the rock looks like a lion head, the garden has become to be called “Lion barking garden”, “Shishiku-no-niwa” in Japanese, and it is believed that the Buddha preaches to visitors while they are strolling around the garden.  All the visitors can realize absolute truth of life while they are walking around it hearing sounds of singing birds and winds. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

In April,1701, Asano Takuminokami, who was the daimyo feudal lord of the Ako domain in present-day Hyogo Prefecture, suddenly slashed Kira Kozukenosuke Yoshinaka with his katana sword inside the Edo Castle during the annual reception of an imperial envoy from Kyoto.  The Kira family is a special high-ranking samurai family to teach the know-how of the ritual to a daimyo in charge of entertaining imperial envoy of the year.  It was strictly forbidden to draw a katana in Edo Castle, and it was the important day of the reception for the imperial envoy, therefore the anger of the then shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was so fierce that Asano was ordered to commit seppuku (hara-kiri) on the same day.  And the Asano family was dispossessed of their Ako domain.  All the retainers of Asano lost their status consequently and became the so-called ronin.  This Sengaku-ji Temple was the family temple in Tokyo for the Asano family, thus he was buried here right after the seppuku.  This incident was a kind of big fight between two samurais, so it was unspoken agreement in the samurai world that they should have been equally punished in this case at that time.  However, only Asano was strictly punished. Against this unfair judgment of the shogunate, Oishi Kuranosuke, the former chief retainer of the late Asano, and other ronins made a decision to revenge their late lord on Kira.  They thought to correct the wrong judgement of the shogunate.  At long last, they attacked the mansion of Kira in Edo to behead him in December, 1702.  Then they marched all the way to Sengaku-ji Temple, 10km west of the mansion, with Kira’s head on the top of a long spear.  After offering Kira’s head to the grave of Asano, they surrendered to the authorities.  Two opinions conflicted within the shogunate on how to judge them.  One was that they were no more than terrorists against the social order, and the other was that they were ideal samurais who risked their lives on behalf of their former lord.  The former opinion finally gained ground three months after the attack, and they were ordered to commit seppuku.  All of them were buried beside their lord in Sengaku-ji Temple.  The incident from Asano’s slash to the ronins seppuku became a hot topic of conversation among the citizens in Edo at that time and public opinion regretted their deaths. In front of their small gravestones at the temple, 47 of them, there still is streaks of incense smoke trailing off in the wind.  The first photo shows Oishi’s gravestone accompanied by other ronins’ gravestones.  The second one is the well, which is supposed to have been used to wash Kira’s head before they offered it to Asano’s gravestone.   Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This Japanese-style hotel opened in 1951 and has undergone several additional renovations since then.  Being built at the old site of a former house of Suminokura Ryoi, who was a local wealthy merchant, this ryokan sells its elegant Japanese garden designed by Kobori Enshu. Kobori Enshu was a feudal lord in present Shiga Prefecture in the 17th century.  He also was a leading landscape gardener, master of the tea ceremony and ceramist.  A detached dining room from the main building named Kankyu-ro, which is the oldest building of the ryokan, features a renowned garden.  A Chinese soapberry tree over 300 years old standing in the garden conveys the long history of the site.  The first photo shows the interior of Kankyu-ro dining room.  The second one is the exterior of Kankyu-ro over the garden. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This modern-Japanese-style building, built in 1921, originally was a villa of Yamamoto Shunkyo, a leading Japanese-style painter in the Kyoto art world before the Second World War.  The garden of the villa directly faced Lake Biwa when it was built in that they could enjoy a boat ride on the lake from a small boat dock in the garden.  Thereafter, however, the lakeshore was reclaimed to build a wide road, which consequently separated the villa from the lake.  The specification of the villa is full of fanciful and playful ideas of the original owner. A round window in the first photo is decorated with a set of bamboo work in the center likened to withered plume grass.  This idea may express wabi-sabi from Zen Buddhism.  The second photo shows a tokonoma alcove with a square bamboo alcove post using very rare bamboo. Such playful ideas can be found not only inside and outside of the building, but also throughout the garden.  This kind of building style is called Sukiya-zukuri, and is often seen on teahouses and villas in Japan. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Zeze ware isn’t well known in Japan though, it was originated by a daimyo feudal lord of Zeze domain, present Otsu City, in the 17th century.  It grew as a kind of tea utensils under the guidance of Kobori Enshu, the outstanding tea master at that time.  In the golden age, it was in great demand among all the tea masters across the country.  However, it had declined in the 18th century.  After a longtime hiatus since, Kenzo Iwasaki who was a local benefactor as well as a collector of original Zeze ware antiques started to tackle the revival of Zeze ware in 1919.  He built a climbing kiln on this museum site under the guidance of a master ceramist in Kyoto and at long last the revived Zeze ware was born here.  The exhibits of the art museum are his collection of original Zeze ware and the revived Zeze ware produced on this site.  The photo shows a Japanese garden with tea house adjacent to the museum.  The tea house is opened to visitors for tea ceremony with Zeze ware. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Uochu stands in the old town of Otsu City, which was the last post town (the 53rd post town from Edo) of the old Tokaido Highway running between Edo and Kyoto.  This wooden building originally was the house of a wealthy kimono fabrics dealer built in 1905, and still maintains the original design.  The garden as shown in the first photo was designed by a renowned gardener the 7th Ogawa Jihei, who also created the garden of Heian Shrine as well as Maruyama Park in Kyoto.  Hence, Uochu features the Japanese-style dining room facing this refined garden.  The second photo shows a tsuboniwa, very small inner garden created by using various kinds of small garden stones, moss and the like.  The third photo is the façade of the building. This building was designed and built by Sakurai Katsujiro, a well-known carpenter in this region, and has similarity in design to machiya, traditional wooden town houses in Kyoto. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Mikimoto Kokichi, known as the founder of MIKIMOTO, a manufacturer and seller of jewelry using pearls, was born in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, in 1858.  At that time, Toba and its vicinity were known worldwide as a production and export base for natural pearls, and they were a major export of Japan then.  In accordance with the increase in the export of natural pearls, overharvesting of pearl oysters occurred and Japanese pearl oyster population was in danger of extinction.  In light of this situation, Mikimoto Kokichi initiated the cultivation of pearl oysters though, this venture finished in vain.  He thereafter changed his policy and decided to tackle the cultivation of pearls that were as round and spherical as natural ones.  There were cultured pearls in China at that time, but they couldn’t be used for jewelry because of the shape and quality.  Thanks to the great support from the researchers of a university, his relatives and financiers, his venture finally reached the success and went into full commercial production of the quality cultured pearls in 1918.  With many overseas branches such as in London, New York and Paris, Mikimoto’s cultured pearls gradually became a world brand.  The quality cultured pearls by Mikimoto drove away natural pearls.  In this connection, Kuwait and neighboring countries in the Middle East, which also were the major bases of natural pearl production of the world at that time, seriously suffered devastating damage caused by Mikimoto’s pearls. This damage led them to oil production instead of natural pearls.  The photo shows a small island named Mikimoto Pearl Island in Shima City, where Mikimoto Kokichi earnestly conducted the research on the quality pearl cultivation. This island is a kind of theme park on pearls now. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This garden dates back to the garden of the main Edo mansion of the Kofu Tokugawa family, a relative family of the Tokugawa shogun, which was built in the mid-17th century.  With repeated expansion works, thereafter, the total area of the garden reached about 150,000 square meters, almost the same as now, and the style of the garden with a path around a central pond was also completed at the same time in the second half of the 17th century.  This central pond was what is called Shioiri pond, whose water is seawater from the adjacent seacoast.  Hence, the shape of the pond changes in accordance with the tides.  This idea still applies to the gardens built near the sea even now.  At the beginning of the 18th century, the 6th shogun Tokugawa Ienobu came from the Kofu Tokugawa family, and the garden became under the control of the Tokugawa shogun family.  The successive shoguns after him were eager to improve the garden to fit their preferences.  A duck hunting area for pleasure as well as several teahouses were built at the beginning of the 19th century.  After being used for the State Guest House under the control of the imperial family in the mid-19th century, it is opened to the public now managed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.  Currently, reconstruction work is underway to restore it to its old appearance.  Reconstruction of the three teahouses by the Shioiri pond has just been completed as shown in the photo. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

A beautiful coastline with large and small rocks as well as white sand, situated at the mouth of the Isuzu River, is known as Futamigaura.  The Ise River flows into Ise Bay via the ground of the Naiku of Ise Jingu Shrine, so in the Edo Period, the worshippers to the shrine used to use the river water here for purification before visiting the shrine.  In 1881, thereafter, this beautiful coast was designated as Japan’s first official swimming beach and it’s said that the Emperor Taisho, a great-grandfather of the present emperor Naruhito, swam here when he was a boy.  Sea bathing was for medical purposes at that time, hence most lodging facilities here were equipped with a big public bathtub filled with hot sea water. The guests having physical disease alternately soaked in cold sea water and hot sea water to be cured.  The first photo shows Hinjitsu-kan ryokan, Japanese hotel, built in 1887.  This originally was just for the Imperial family and VIPs, but is now used for rental conference rooms as an important cultural property. The second one is Meoto-iwa Wedded Rocks, which has been widely known since the Edo Period because it was described in an ukiyo-e woodblock print by Utagawa Toyokuni in the first half of the 19th century. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Denzaburo Fujita was born into a wealthy family running a brewing and financial industry in the Choshu domain, present Yamaguchi Prefecture, one of the major powers overthrowing the Tokugawa feudal government in the second half of the 19th century.  He established the Fujita-gumi in 1869, whose business was the metal mining and refining.  He gradually developed the territory of business making the most of a lot of contacts mainly in politics, because there were a considerable number of high-ranking politicians from the Choshu domain, who were working for the Meiji Restoration government.  The core company of the present Fujita financial conglomerate is Dowa Holdings, one of the major metal mining companies in Japan.  He also contributed to the foundation of Hitachi and Nissan.  In this connection, Jiufen which is a leading tourist spot in Taiwan was the gold mining town of the Fujita-gumi before the Second World War.  One third of the entire area of his mansion in central Osaka is converted to a park, and the art collections of him, some of which are national treasures, are on display in the museum in the park.  The first photo is the main gate of his former mansion, the second one is a two-storied pagoda relocated here before the war and the third one is a part of the central pond of his private garden. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Court nobles in Kyoto were special families serving successive emperors.  They lived in big houses around the Kyoto Imperial Palace to support successive emperors in the fields of rituals and culture for longer than 1,000 years.  In the second half of the 19th century, when Japan’s modernization started, the then emperor moved to Tokyo from Kyoto followed by most court nobles.  But the Reizei family remained in Kyoto because they were assigned to the position of maintenance and preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace property.  The Reizei family is also known as the specialist in charge of waka, a 31-syllable Japanese poem being popular among the Imperial family.  The photo shows the main entrance of the house of the Reizei family in Kyoto, built in 1790, and the entire house is designated as an important cultural property.  This is the one and only original house of court noble in existence. Licensed tour guide, travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Sankei-en Garden was built by Zenzaburo Hara, a superrich businessman who made a fortune in silk trade at the beginning of the 20th century.  It took about 30 years to the completion, but the garden was heavily destroyed in the air raids during the Second World War.  After the war, the right of ownership was transferred to a corporate body.  Making the most of ups and downs of the gentle hill, the garden is dotted with 17 old elegant wooden buildings, 12 of which are designated as important cultural properties.  They were relocated here from all over the country.  Thanks to this effort, Yokohama can enjoy historical environment of the feudal years even though it’s a young city.  The first photo shows the villa of Tokugawa’s branch family in Wakayama which was originally built in Wakayama Prefecture in 1649.  The second one is the Buddha Hall of Tokei-ji nunnery in Kamakura originally built in 1643.  Both are important cultural properties.  Some criticized the relocation of these valuable buildings, but many of which were neglected without adequate maintenance.  Therefore, positive opinions dominate from the viewpoint of cultural assets preservation. Licensed tour guide travel consultant, Masahisa Takaki. 全国通訳案内士　高木聖久。 http://tour-guide-japan.jp/