Adachi Museum of Art Gardens

 

The gardens at the Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi, Shimane are very well known and have been classed as the top garden in Japan for many consecutive years by an American magazine on Japanese gardens.

With a total of six gardens, they cover a very large area, however, they are not stroll gardens in the traditional sense.

The gardens are viewed from within the buildings and from the connecting corridors and covered walkways between the buildings.

The museum, which opened in 1970, houses a huge collection of Nihonga paintings and also ceramics.

The works of Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) a major influence on the Nihonga style,  are especially featured.

In fact, some of the gardens and their features were directly influenced by some of his paintings.

One of the features is the "living paintings", where windows of the museum frame classic views of the garden. Photo 2 is the most well-known example.

While not stroll gardens, it is possible for private tour groups to be taken into some sections of the garden and have things explained by the gardeners.

Like many traditional gardens, shakkei, or borrowed scenery is also in evidence in the main gardens.

As with many of the best gardens, the scenery changes with the seasons. This visit was at the end of April.

The designer is Kinsaku Nakane (1917-1995) who created many gardens outside of Japan but is perhaps most well known as the restorer of the garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto.

I have posted earlier on some of his other gardens in Japan, with the one at the Yoko Museum near Takeo Onsen in Saga, known as Keishu-en, being somewhat similar to his Adachi designs, though much smaller.

More traditional are the gardens at Ohori Park in Fukuoka which I posted on in Spring and in Autumn.

Of course, the other major influence on the design of the grdens was Zenko Adachi (1899-1990) the founder of the museum.

As a young man he sold coal from a cart but went on to make a fortune in real estate, textiles, and rice-trading. He seriously began collecting art in 1959 and his collection formed the basis of the museum.

His ideas were influential on the design of the gardens, especially the notion of "living paintings".

Recently someone commented to me that they found the gardens here a little soul-less.

Not sure I agree with that, but I stand by my intial reaction when I first visited 20 years ago, and that they made me think of a manga version of Japanese gardens....

The museum continues to expand with the newest wing being a gallery devoted to Kitaoji Rosanjin.

Somewhat off the beaten track, the museum still runs free shuttle buses from JR Yasugi station.

Isotake Beach

 

Isotake Port is situated in small bay protected by a headland. On the seaward side of the ports residential area runs a narrow beach.

The beach runs up to a couple of small headlands. In the distance can be seen the Shimane Peninsula that I will reach in a couple of more days walking.

Inland Mount Sanbe is clearly visible. At 1,126 meters, it is the highest point in the former province of Iwami, and is actually classed as an active volcano, but has not erupted in historical times.

Like so much of the coastline of Japan, it has its fair share of concrete tetrapods protecting it, though to be fair on the Japan Sea side we have a lot of natiral coatsline left compared to the Pacific Side.

After these couple of headlands there is a long stretch of somewhat wilder beach.

This is called Isotake Beach and inland of it is the Isotake JR station and an agricultural settlement now cosidered part of Isotake.

The previous post in this series exploring the Sea of Japan coastline was on Isotake Port.

Sakurai Family Samurai Mansion

 

The Sakurai were a samurai family who controlled iron production in an area of Okuizumo in the Chugoku Mountains of Shimane.

Originally from what is now Hiroshima, the family moved here in 1644 from the Kabe district and so were known locally as Kabeya.

Just below the old manor is a modern museum called Kabeya Shuseikan displaying artifacts from the family history.

The main house was built in 1738. The main residence sometimes served as a honjin, a guesthouse for when the Daimyo was traveling in the area

The most notable feature of the manor is the garden, and that will get a full post next....

There were several other samurai families controlling iron production in the region, probably the most important iron-producing region in Japan.

Down the mountains, the Itohara Family Residence is another big samurai manor with a garden and also a museum devoted to tatara iron making.

Near to the Sakurai Residence is more modern version of a tatara forge, and in the town of Yokota is a big museum devoted to tatara and samurai swords

Yamata no Orochi

 

Yamata no Orochi is a mythical serpent with 8 heads that appears in the Izumo cycle of ancient Japanese myths set in the time before the descent of imperial lineage.

In the myth, Susano defeats the serpent and marries a local princess who was to be sacrificed to the serpent, and so and begins the rise of Izumo culture that predates and later contributed to Yamato culture.

All these photos are of a modern sculpture depicting Orochi outside the Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum, in Yokota, Shimane. Orochi appears everywhere throughout Izumo, on draincovers and giving its name to many products, including the tourist train I took to get here.

Yokota is on the River Hi which runs through Okuizumo and it is generally held that the 8-headed serpent refers to the 8 tributaries of the river that is at times violent and dangerous. Some commentators suggest that Orochi represents a tribe that fought the Izumo, but so much evidence suggests it was the river. Near here is the shrine for Kushinada, the princess saved from the serpent, and downstream are shrines to her parents. Nearby also is one of the sites said to be where Susano "descended", and spots downstream said to be Orochi's nests are found in narrow gorges where the river would have been particularly dangerous.

The idea of sacrificing humans to a river is fairly widespread around the world as well as here in Japan. I found a riverbank monument to a local lord who was praised by locals when he switched from burying live humans in the river bank to burying clay figures, and stories of human sacrifice to protect new bridges and castle walls are fairly common.

The museum here is on the ancient method of making iron and swords, and Okuizumo was a major centre. In the Orochi myth Susano discovers a sword in the tail of the dead serpent and this went on to be one of the Three Imperial Regalia.

Tatara, a kind of forge used to make iron from iron sand, the method used in Japan, was said to be introduced from mainland Asia, and once again the myths suggest that it was Susano who brought the technology over from Korea. A shrine south of here near Izumo Taisha attest to this.

later I will post on the fascinating history of iron and swordmaking on display in the museum, but in the meantime you may enjoy a wild and dramatic display of Orochi in videos of our local kagura.

The previous post in this series exploring Okuizumo was the Yokota Folk Museum.