The is an

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

structure located in what is now the city of Ōsaki,

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It served as a

han school The was an educational institution in the Edo period of Japan, originally established to educate children of ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) and their retainers in the domains outside of the capital. These institutions were also known as ''hangaku' ...

for the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date family was founded ...

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of the i ...

, and is the oldest existing educational structure in Japan. The building, together with its surrounding gardens, were designated a nationally designated

Historic Site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

and

Place of Scenic Beauty is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultural ...

in 1932.

Overview

A predecessor of the Yūbikan was a han school originally constructed in 1633, within the second bailey of

Iwadeyama Castle was a castle in Ōsaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. After serving Hideyoshi for a time, Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the T ...

, by the second generation head of the Iwadeyama-branch of the Date clan, Date Munetoshi. Intended to serve as the domain's academy, it burned down and was rebuilt by the third generation head, Date Toshichika and was named . It was relocated to its present location in 1691 and was renamed ‘'Yūbikan''. The building is in the ''

shoin-zukuri is a style of Japanese residential architecture used in the mansions of the military, temple guest halls, and Zen abbot's quarters of the Muromachi (1336－1573), Azuchi–Momoyama (1568–1600) and Edo periods (1600–1868). It forms the basis ...

'' style of architecture, with a single story, plain wooden walls, and a

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, a part of the building was renovated, but the original style remained unchanged. Repairs were made again in 1974. The gardens were constructed by the Date clan's tea master Shimizu Dokan, under the fourth generation head, Date Murayasu in 1715. The garden is a walk-around garden containing a pond with a circumference of about 500meters, and employs the backdrop of the ruins of Iwadeyama Castle for

borrowing of scenery ("shakkei") Borrowed scenery (; Japanese: ; Chinese: ) is the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden" found in traditional East Asian garden design. The term borrowing of scenery ("shakkei") is Chinese in origin, an ...

. It is rare example of a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' garden in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

. The Yūbikan and its gardens remained property of the Date clan until 1970, when it was donated to the town of Iwadeyama, which later became part of the city of Ōsaki. The Yūbikan main structure was severely damaged in the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''El ...

, during which 30 of its 33 supporting columns were damaged, causing the roof to collapse. Landslides also damaged parts of the gardens The building and its gardens were repaired and reopened to the public in 2016. It is a short walk from

Yūbikan Station is a railway station on the Rikuu East Line in the city of Ōsaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Yūbikan Station is served by the Rikuu East Line, and is located 25.8 rail kilometers from th ...

on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Rikuu East Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Kogota Station in Misato, Miyagi Prefecture to Shinjō Station in Shinjō, Yamagata Prefecture, acting as a connector between the Tōhoku Main ...

References

External links

*
Ōsaki city home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yubikan 1691 establishments in Japan Ōsaki, Miyagi Mutsu Province Date clan Gardens in Miyagi Prefecture Schools in Japan Education in Miyagi Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty Historic Sites of Japan Buildings and structures in Miyagi Prefecture Tourist attractions in Miyagi Prefecture

Overview

See also

References

External links