Meimei-an Teahouse

 

Meimei-an is an Edo Period teahouse in Matsue, Shimane, with connections to Matsudaira Fumai, the famous Tea Ceremony Master who was Daimyo of the Matsue Domain and whose castle can be seen from the teahouse.

It was built in 1779 and originally stood nearby in the grounds of the Arisawa Family, high-ranking vassals of the domain. Fumai was instrumental in bringing Tea Ceremony culture to his domain and vassals and he was a frequent visitor to Meimei-an.

It was dismantled and rebuilt in Tokyo in the Meiji Period but later came back to Matsue where it moved several times before its current location where it was restored in 1966.

It is the type of teahouse styled after a rustic mountain hut that was popularized by the great Tea Master Sen no Rikyu.

It is not possible to enter Meimei-an, but can be looked into through open doors and screens.

Immediately adjacent to Meomei-an is the Akayama Tea Ceremony Hall used as a site for various Tea Ceremony groups but also open to the public and where you can have a green tea with sweets while enjoying the view of Meimei-an.

I will cover the gardens around Meimei-an in the next post. Fumai Matsudaira made Matsue one of the three main tea ceremony centres of Japan and there are numerous other sites around the town connected to him and the tea ceremony.

In the nearby Matsue History Museum is a reconstruction of another Teahouse favored by Fumai as well as displays on him and the tea ceremony. Not far from the castle is Gesshoji Temple, the Matsudaira family temple where they were buried. It also has a collection of historic tea ceremony utensils owned by Fumai, as well as one of his favorite gardens.

The previous post in this series exploring Matsue was the samurai mansion just below Meimei-an.

The next post is on the roji, the garden of the teahouse.