is located in Taitō, Tokyo. It is the former estate of the Iwasaki clan who were the founders of

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

. The premises have three buildings: a Western-style house designed by British architect Josiah Conder, a Japanese house and a billiard house, and cover an area of about 17,000 square metres.

History

The grounds were originally owned by the Sakakibara family of the Echigo Takada Clan in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, and were the site of their Edo residence. The property passed to the Makino family of the Maizuru clan in the early

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

. In 1896, Hisaya Iwasaki, son of the founder of the

Mitsubishi group The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 1946 ...

, Yataro Iwasaki, purchased this land — three years after becoming Mitsubishi's third president. The premises became the official residence of the Iwasaki family. Hisaya Iwasaki hired the British architect, Josiah Conder, who designed a two-story Western-style main building and the Swiss-style billiards house. The whole project actually consisted of more than 20 buildings on 49,500 m² property. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the residence was confiscated by the

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (), or SCAP, was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) ...

and after it was returned it was used as the Judicial Research and Training Institute of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

until 1970. Of all that was built, only the Western-style mansion, the billiards house, and one Japanese-style structure remain — victim first to the Liberation of Japan, but more to the Japanese Department of Justice, which demolished nearly all the Japanese-style housing. The present grounds are now less than half their original size. In 1961, the main mansion was saved by being recognized as an Important Cultural Asset status. This was extended to the whole property in 1999. Since 2001, it has been administered by the

Tokyo metropolitan government The is the government of the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 47 Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, headquarters build ...

Buildings

Western-style residence is a two-story building constructed of wood that also has a cellar. The design is based on the

Jacobean style The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James's reign, the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the 17th century, which incorporates Islamic motifs of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. On the south side of the building, there is a

veranda A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

with a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

. The second-story colonnade is in the Ionian style of the

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

country house. The reason is that Hisaya Iwasaki had just graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. The house features ''Kinkarakami'' (金唐紙) or ''Kinkarakawashi'' (金唐革紙)

wallpaper Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...

featuring a golden and turquoise floral decoration. It is a Japanese type of ''

washi is traditional Japanese paper processed by hand using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Edgeworthia chrysantha''), or the paper mulberry (''kōzo'') bush. ''Washi'' is generally tougher than ordinary ...

'' paper using the technique of metal foil applied through a woodblock roll and hammered with a brush, and has the appearance of coloured leather. This technique was developed in Japan and exported to Europe. Billiards house was designed to be reminiscent of a Swiss mountain

chalet A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-su ...

, a style very rarely seen in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. This building is made completely of wood, it features log walls with carved

pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s and a roof with protruding

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

, a design that shows signs of

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

. It is connected to the main residence by an underground passageway. Japanese-style building was integrated with the Western-style residence. At the time the building was completed, the total floor space amounted to 1,815 m², making it nearly comparable in size to the Western-style building. There exist

screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing or ''silkscreening'', a printing method * Big screen, a nickname for motion pictures * Split screen (filmmaking), showing two or more images side by side * Stochastic screening and Halftone ...

s and fusuma sliding door paintings done by a well-known painter of the period,

Hashimoto Gahō was a Japanese painter, one of the last to paint in the style of the Kanō school. He is also considered the founder of ''Nihonga'' and was an educator who trained many ''Nihonga'' painters. Many of the painters recognized in later generations a ...

. Originally the Japanese-style residence was once made of seven different buildings and was significantly larger than the Western-style residence. The garden may now be little more than a lawn. The elements in the garden that still exist from the

include some stone monuments,

lanterns A lantern is a source of lighting, often portable. It typically features a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle, a wick in oil, or a thermoluminescent mesh, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto ...

and a stone hand-washing basin. The garden is about 3 minutes' walk from Yushima Station.

References

External links

Official site

{{Coord, 35, 42, 35, N, 139, 46, 4, E, display=title Gardens in Tokyo Buildings and structures in Taitō

History

Buildings

See also

References

External links