August 10, 2008

• 8/10/2008 Sengenen

  Iso Teien Garden is located in the city of Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. Its formal name, Sengenen, was taken from a place in China on which the garden is modeled. Iso Teien was created by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, ruler of this region, as his villa in 1658 , and was expanded into its present form in 1848. The garden has a grand view that encompasses Kinko Bay in the foreground, and the towering volcano Sakura-jima beyond the bay, shooting out smoke. A gas lamp in the shape of a stone lantern, the first in Japan, may also be seen in the garden. Shimazu Nariakira, a family member who lived in the first half of the 19th century was a lover of western technology and wanted to import foreign learning into Japan to help it become a modern country.

  

  Explanation below...

  

  

  These are hallways beneath the furnace base.  Hubby said that when they made school trips here they all used to run around in here and play.  It was pretty dark, so it must have been fun.

  

  Gotta look in the souvenir shops!  These figurines are made of volcanic ash from the local active volcano, Sakurajima.  I didn't get these, just took a picture.

   

  This is for warming Imo Jyouchu, a local brew made from sweet potatoes.  The pot is shaped like an erupting volcano, as are the cups in the background.

  

  Here is the gate to the villa.

  

  We got a tour of the house, pictured below.

  

  

  The designer of the garden included Kinko Bay and the local volcano in his scenery.

  

  These were some fischy pull toys sold inside the villa.  Really cute, but I am trying not to accumulate stuff and just took a picture.

  

  This is from a very large ceramic jar in the garden.  Wouldn't this look cool printed on a t-shirt? 

  

  A boat chugs in the bay.  The two bamboo branches to the right are decorations for Tanabata, the star festival. 

  

  This is basically the same scenery zoomed in upon.

  

  More souvenirs.  Sob, I can't take it.  These are replicas of talisman bags that hold protective Buddhist sutras written on paper.  NHK's Sunday night historical drama is Atsuhime, and is about a girl adopted by Shimazu Nariakira into the Shimazu family and goes up to marry the Shogun in Tokyo who is a bit weak in head and body and leaves her a widow at age 23.  Before she was adopted into the Shimazu family there was a feller Naogoro who wanted to marry Atsuhime, but had to give it all up after her adoption, as she had another destiny.  When Atsuhime and Naogoro parted they exchanged these little bags.  Yep, it is a tear jerker.  The fellow who played the Shogun was a really good actor.  When we first meet him he is a real geeky type, but everyone gradually becomes quite fond of him and when he dies...  Hand me another kleenex.  A lot of people in the Shogun's household died in disproportionate numbers under suspicious circumstances.

  

  

  Interesting.  The shrine is below, complete with a Hello Kitty.

  

  

  This is a pestle that uses water from a mountain stream to dehull rice.

  

  Water runs into this trough in one end of the beam, and when it becomes full it is heavy enough to cause this end of the see-saw mechanism to drop, which raises the pestle on the other end.

  

  It is hot enough to use parasols!  Another ferry sails in the bay.

  

  Sakurajima in mists of clouds and ash.

  

  This is another souvenir shop that features goods made of Yakusugi, cedars from Yaku Island.  Here is a small Buddhist family altar, all yours for a mere $17,000.

  

  Tanabata decorations  - I could not get a good angle on these, so they look a bit dark.

  

  Offerings for the star festival placed below the bamboo decorations.

  

  Another shot of Kinko Bay and Sakurajima seen from the garden.

  

  

  A pond in the garden with a view of the villa

  

  Can you find this in the picture below?

  

  Let's zoom in a bit.

  

  

  We are standing on the other side of the pond facing the volcano.

  

  

  Here is a stone lantern in the shape of a crane taking off.  Shimazu Nariakira liked newfangled gadgets and had installed one of the countries first gaslights in this lantern.

  

  Green piled on green

  

  Another view of the villa sans people.

  

  I wonder how old this tree is.

  

  Below see the Shuseikan building.  It is now a museum, so I could not take pictures, but it houses many of the early machinery that Nariakira imported from abroad.

  

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