Rinshunkaku palace in late autumn: Sankei-en (Yokohama)

Sankei-en Garden is a vast garden-building complex of various historical buildings, temples, teahouses and traditional Japanese landscape gardens, which is located in the seaside area adjacent Yokohama Port. 17 Japanese historic buildings are located on the about 18ha site. Sankei-en was built in 1906 as the private home of Tomitaro “Sankei” Hara (1869-1939) and was named after his Gago (pseudonym). 

It is widely admired for its great aesthetic quality which is equal to that of the Katsura Imperial Villa of Kyoto. It was opened to the public in 1906 through the courtesy of Sankei Hara and, subsequently, its further construction works and landscaping were continued as his life work.

"Sankei" means "three valleys" and is associated with the place name of the location of this garden. He was an extremely wealthy silk trader in Yokohama and one of the leading Japanese industrialists of the Meiji era (1868-1912). 

Sankei was a prominent collector of Japanese antiques as well as an outstanding patron of the Japanese art world of his time. He was also an elegant Cha-jin (master of the tea ceremony) and a distinguished Huryu-jin (man of refined tastes) who loved painting and calligraphy deeply.

The elegant building named "Rinshunkaku" (the palace for overlooking spring), which symbolizes this Sankei-en, is calmly bathed in the dull afternoon sunlight of late autumn against the backdrop of rust-colored trees and leaves. 

This building is constructed in the Shoin-and-Sukiya-zukuri architectural form which is the combination of Shoin-zukuri (the traditional housing style for the samurai class) and the style of Sukiya-zukuri (the style of a tea-ceremony house). 

The building, which was moved from Osaka and formerly called "Hashuken" Kaisho (meeting-palace), was purchased around 1905 and then was reconstructed around 1917 here, adding Sankei's favorite tastes.

Sankei believed that this palace, called Momoyama Goten (Momoyama Palace) by himself, was the remains of the North Palace at Juraku-dai (the residence and office in Kyoto) of the Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi in Momoyama period (approx. 1583-1600), which is said to have been designed by Sen No Rikyu.

Choshukaku teahouse and Rinshunkaku palace in late autumn: Sankei-en (Yokohama)

 

Rinshunkaku palace and garden in late autumn: Sankei-en (Yokohama)

 

Shin-goten (new palace): Katsura-rikyu (Kyoto)

The Shoin (study hall) buildings, Shin-goten (new palace), teahouses, and so on are elaborately located throughout the site of about 6 hectares. This villa is known both in Japan and abroad for its sophisticated architectural design and highly refined "Sukiya-zukuri" style (the tea-ceremony-room style). 

The ornaments and furnishings of these buildings and the scenery of the pond garden are admired as one of the most remarkable masterpieces of the residence of a court noble in the early Edo period (1603-1867). This type of architecture is called "Shinden-zukuri" which denotes the typical style of court nobles' houses in the Heian period (794-1185,) which features an extensive garden with paths around a central pond.

 

At the time of the establishment of this villa, the water level of the pond was the same as that of the Katsura river flowing nearby, and the pond was directly connected to the river by a channel to enable a pleasure boat to go out from the garden to the Katsura River.

The floors of the palace and Shoin buildings are raised high to secure them against the floodwater of the river. 

When this garden was covered with floodwater, these buildings, which are made of delicate timbers and paper, might have seemed to be floating gently on the moonlit water like a beautiful sailing ship anchored there. 

(Unfortunately, the Shoin buildings were undergoing extensive repairs and were completely enclosed with construction partition panels. Even their exteriors could hardly be seen.)