The Yosuien Garden is a daimyo garden of about 33,000 square meters mainly made of pine trees, built by Tokugawa harutomi, the 10th lord of the Kishu Tokugawa family. The pond is a salted pond that incorporates seawater, which is rare in Japan, and the flowers and trees of the four seasons make visitors feel the seasons. In the garden, there is a tea house and a yosui pavilion, and valuable remains such as the tea house, the actual hermitage (second tatami table) and the left diagonal climbing corridor are preserved.
pond with sea water
The Yosuien has the pond which is taken in sea water ti be originally built for the daimyo.The style is referred to as “coming in of the tide.”Yosuien is uncommon to have the pond with sea water in japan.Yosuien and Hama-rikyu Garden in Tokyo only have the pond with sea water in the country.Yosuien pond is 11,550 square meters in area,and the mouth of the pond is covered with area which are mingled with fresh and salt water.Ina and haze fish and eels live in the area,and migrant birds of kamo or sagi visit here to enjoy playing.
shugoshin-jima(the island for a guardian deity)
There is an island which is enshrined in the shrine of Inari-sha and Benten-sha in the center of the pond.When Tokugawa Harutomi visited Yosuien garden,he worshiped it without fail.It has a tradition that the shrine came from a famous Inari Shrine in Kyoto with a historical background.It is connected with two bridges,Mitsu Bridge and Taiko Bridge.The shape of both bridges is beautiful.
Taiko Bridge
There bridges were created with an image of the 2.8-meter-length bank which was placed in Sei Lake in Suzhouo of China.However,our garden’s bridges have a peculiarity with adapting an arc style looking like Mt.Takozushi in China.They make up the style of arch which has a difference from China’s bank with a straight-line shape. They were made from soil until around 1888,but its structure was weak, so they had to be rebuit many times.After that,there bridges into concrete ones reconstructed by the 15th Kishu daimyo Tokugawa Yorimichi.
Mitsuhashi
It is said to imitate the West Lake in China, and the left side of this embankment is a Chinese-style garden with a straight seawall, and the right is a Japan garden with a curved seawall.
Yosuitei
“Gozano-ma” (a rest room for Tokugawa Harutomi)
“Gozano-ma” is a special room for Tokugawa Harutomi to rest when he visited this building. The room was built on the top of the building, and other rooms were constructed with the lower step by step toward the tea house “Otsugi zashiki,” placing the lowest part of the building. It was unnatural to build the upper part of the place in tea-ceremony cottages, and as all of the rooms lifted up, you would be able to see the room as if it was placed on the higher area. Its pillars of the room also were decorated with filleting called “naguri,” and there were no rooms with the decoration except the “Gozano-ma” room. It was the best place to observe all of the garden created panoramic scenes because the eaves deeply stuck out from the room.
“Jitusai-an” Tearoom
The tea house “Yosui-an” has a tea room called “Jitsusai-an” with two tatami mats which is the oldest one in Wakayama Prefecture. The tea room was attracted by the tea master Ryoryo Sai that he belonged to Omote Senke, tea management group. The inside is made up a floor room with two tatami mats, a tatami mat and a kitchen with a tatami mat. It is a very small tearoom. Tokugawa Harutomi was a person with a deep knowledge of the tea ceremony among successive daimyo, and he got Kaiden or full proficiency in the world of tea ceremony from Rikyu school. The Kaiden means the best award in the tea ceremony. Harutomi was well known as he returned initiated with the award to Kyu Kosai who became the 10th leader of Omote Senke when he was young. The tearoom was used as a lobby for his guests.
“Hidari naname nobori-roka” (the hallway to climb the left side slant)
The hallway is built with the structure that you have to climb the slant of the left side, so all of its tatami mats and shoji paper screens were created with parallelograms. There is no the same style building in the nation except the hallway of this garden. At that time, when guests using a palanquin arrived at the main gate of the building, they were guided the place called “Gozano-ma” staying the daimyo Tokugawa Harutomi after they took a rest for a while at the tea house “yosui-ter” called “Otsugi- Zashiki” The hallway to climb the left side slant connected Gozano-ma with Ostugi-Zashiki, Why did the hallway create such styles? The reason was that Gozano ma was placed on the highest part of the building, on the other hand, Otsugi-Zashiki the lowest part of it. Reportedly, after that there were many times of the change of its designs and its enlargings, as a result, the hallway becomes today’s style.
Tea house “yosui-tei”
The tea house “yosui-tei” has still been preserved since the days when it was built. It was used as a villa of Kishu’s daimyo. The building totally remains not only places to use daimyo but other parts of them making use of his retainers. However, all of the building was completely repaired from 1991 to 1994 because it got old. Some roof tiles were inscribed letters “Bunsei yoʻnen kawaraya kyu-hachi or this tile was produced in 1821 by the tile maker Kyu Hachi.
