Matsuda-ya Hotel in Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, features a splendid Japanese garden.

The historic Matsuda-ya Hotel, established in 1675, stands in Yuda Onsen hot springs in the heart of Yamaguchi City, the prefectural capital of Yamaguchi Prefecture.  Yamaguchi City used to be the government office of the Choshu domain in the second half of feudal years, so it became the most important meeting place to plan the strategy to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.  Because the Choshu domain, present time Yamaguchi Prefecture, formed an alliance with the Satsuma domain, present time Kagoshima Prefecture, to cope with the Tokugawa feudal government in the 19^th century.  Hence, they finally sat the major seats like prime minister and other ministries of the Meiji new government.  They frequently gathered at Matsuda-ya secretly, so there are many traces of them around this hotel.  The Japanese garden in the first photo originally was a dry landscape garden though, it was totally redesigned by Ogawa Jihei the 7^th, a well-known master landscape gardener in Kyoto, under the felp of Yamagata Aritomo, a prime minister from the Choshu domain.  Yamagata, having excellent gardening idea, is said to have given Ogawa helpful advice about Japanese garden.

The second photo shows the hut in the garden named Nanshu-tei, which was used for a meeting place with Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi and Kido Koin, who are from the Satsuma domain and the Choshu domain.  They are well-known political heroes in Japan in the 19^th century.

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