The Hirata Honjin Museum is located on a hillside overlooking the old town of Hirata near the shore of Lake Shinji.
A honjin was a property used as a guesthouse by feudal lords when they traveled within their domain and this one was the residence of the wealthy Honkisa family who made their fortune locally with sake brewing and trading cotton.
The buildings and most importantly the garden were dismantled and moved here from their original site about 2 kilometers away.
It is an Izumo-style garden, karensansui, with the arrangement of stepping stones that marks it as uniquely Izumo.
It is sometimes referred to as Gentan-style after Sawa Gentan, a gardener brought to Izumo by The famous daimyo Matsudaira Fumai who had a hand in designing many of the gardens in the Izumo and Matsue area.
Unfortunately, the garden cannot be entered, however, it can be enjoyed from the main room of the house.
Some say that the garden can be best appreciated in the rain when the wet stones shine....
However, visitors are allowed to enter the gardens that lead from the main house to the Yuyuan Teahouse.
The Yuyuan is a Shoin-style teahouse of 4.5 tatami.
It is not open to visitors, but can be rented.
It was reproduced using the original Edo period plans.
As well as the gardens, the whole house is open to visitors.
On display are artworks and artifacts from the family, including some samurai armour.
The traditional bathroom and toilets are also open.
There are also two large, modern, galleries that show temporary exhibitions, and sometimes more works from the family collection of prints and paintings.
These sometimes have an entry fee, though I must stress that everything else is free.
And yet there is more......
Some large storehouses have been converted into a Folk Crafts Museum....
In many ways this place is similar to the
Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum which also offers gardens, traditional architecture, and exhibitions with no entry fee. If anything The Hirata Honjin has the edge in terms of displays and gardens.
In the entrance hall you will see a big example of a local artform, Isshiki Kazari. I have briefly touched on this before,
in this post.
In the old section of Hirata you will be able to see many more examples of isshiki kazari and also visit a wealthy merchant home and gardens, that while not as spectacular as the Hirata Honjin, is well worth a visit.
For those into gardens, less than 2 kilometers from Hirata Honjin is Kokokuji, a zen temple with a small but excellent garden. It and the Hirata Hoinjin garden always appear in the top gardens list of the American magazine Journal of Japanese Gardening. The top garden in that magazine is always the Adachi Museum Garden, also in Shimane.
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