Old residence and garden of Hori consists of four areas, namely the front garden of the main building, Rakusan-en, Waraku-en and the outer garden of Hatagasako Hospital. It has a wide variety of landscaping elements with superb design and structures. It is also famous for its unique scenery which maximizes the local landscape such as the valley of the Shiraishi River and the land along the river.
cultural property : historic sites and places of scenic beauty as natural monuments
type : places of scenic beauty
795 Muraki, Tsuwano-chō, Kanoashi-gun, Shimane-ken 699-5622
Tel：0856-72-0010
The Hori Family was one of the powerful clans in the Tsuwano area who managed the Sasagadani copper mine in the Iwami silver mine during the Edo Period. The garden consists of 4 areas: A dry landscape garden in the south of the main building, which was built along the Shiraishi River; the garden, Rakusan-en, for a Sukiya style building, Rakusan-so, which was built by Hori Tojuro Reizo, the 15th head of the clan, in 1900; the garden, Waraku-en, built on the slope of the riverbank of the Shiraishi River on the opposite side in 1915 and a fish-breeding pond; and the remains of the outer garden of the Hatagasako Hospital, which was built by the Hori Family for the employees and local residents who worked for the copper mine.
The garden in the south of the main building and study is a simple and small dry landscape garden surrounded by mud walls, which exhibits the standard style of the Shoin-style front garden established in the Edo Period. Rakusan-en is famous for stone arrangements for a double-tier waterfall, lanterns for snow-scene viewing along stepping stones by the pond and stone buildings such as the Soto-style stone lanterns. The view of the garden from the main parlor includes a scenery of rice paddies by the Shiraishi River and Waraku-en on the opposite riverbank.
Unique characteristics of the local geography are applied fully to Waraku-en with various designs. The entire valley along the Shiraishi River can be viewed from the lookout on the higher point of the garden. The Hatagasako Hospital was considered to be an important welfare and medical service facility related to the Hori Family. The garden is valuable because of the remains of the landscapes which were used for the hospitals in the recent modern times.