Kokin Denju no Ma Teahouse

Kokin Denju no Ma Teahouse

Kokin Denju no Ma teahouse is an old, thatched building with fatastic views out over the large pond in Suizenji garden in Kumamoto. The teahouse is actually a bit older than the garden, but it was not moved here until 1912.

For more than 300 years it had stood inside the grounds of the Imperial palace in Kyoto but it probably had a different name then.

Kokin Denju is an esoteric teaching on classical poetry. Yusai Hosokawa, the grandfather of the man who established Suizenji garden in 1637, was a samurai scholar who passed on the Kokin Denju to his student Prince Hachijonomiya, the brother of the then current emperor. This took place in the teahouse when it was in the Imoerial palace in Kyoto in the 16th Century.

It is now free to enter and enjoy the best views of the garden.

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