The story of this place starts in 1625, when it was built as the residence of a prince , right south of the imperial palace. It was moved to its current location in 1891. If you have read a few other pages on this website you will probably have noticed that moving buildings happened a lot in old Japan, a fact that never ceases to amaze me as we have very little of that in the west. Anyway, shortly after moving it was used as the official residence of the Kyoto district court secretary. This lasted for almost a century until the place was sold to the Heian Jokakuin (平安女学院), a girl school located right across the street. It was subsequently registered as a national 'tangible cultural asset' (有形文化財). It is now used by the school for traditional cultural activities.
The Arisugawa Residence can now be visited roughly twice a year, in early autumn and in spring. The later season is by far the most popular, for the front garden of the property has an imposing cherry blossom tree, which you can enjoy from the street. There is a little trick though: although it looks like an imposing tree from outside, visiting the place reveals that there is actually two trees growing very close to each other! The seeds of the trees come from another tree located in Sanpo-in, a sub-temple of Daigo-ji.
Besides the cherry blossom twin-tree, the visit is centred on tree other parts of the house. First is the main hall, which has a wooden floor section in the middle of the tatami mats. I didn't understand their explanation for this uncommon feature, but the guide did hit the flooring violently with his foot during his speech, surprising everyone. Maybe something related to how solid those old planks were? Very weird thing to do in an old house anyway, especially in Japan :) The hall also has a tokonoma which is larger than usual, and I invite you to spot the nice dragon carving on top of its paper window on the left.
The second main thing is the dry landscape garden (karesansui - 枯山水), which despite a couple of tsukubai (蹲踞) and lanterns, is looking a bit bland to me. The satsuki rhododendrons probably make it a lot more interesting in early summer. Finally, the tour continues behind the main hall and reaches a small inner garden (nothing great about it IMHO). The few rooms around the garden are filled with... old uniforms from the school which bought the place. A sort of schoolgirl uniform museum if you want, and they have added a few other old-school items there like bento boxes and scented herbs bags, probably part of the schoolgirl life at the time. Recommended for: Access: Nearby: Goo-jinja 護王神社 (220m), Shirakumo-jinja 白雲神社 (260m), Munakata-jinja 宗像神社 (260m), Shūsui-tei 拾翠亭 (380m), Itsukushima-jinja 厳島神社 (400m), Kōdō-kan 弘道館 (460m), Aoi Festival 葵祭 (480m), the Imperial Garden 京都御苑 (480m), the Jidai Festival 時代祭 (500m), the Imperial Palace Goshō 京都御所 (570m),... External links: 京都風光, Marutake, Satellite view, Map Keywords: Japan, 日本, Japon, Kyoto, 京都, 下京, 中京, 上京, 有栖川宮旧邸, Arisugawanomiya, Residence Statistics: id 558, 4 photos (4 extra photos can be found in the archive). |
