Murin-an

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A spacious lawn, a western-style house with gold leaf paintings and a cafe inside the Japanese building – Savor both Matcha tea and the scenic garden view

Aritomo Yamagata’s villa and its epoch-making modern garden

This villa belonged to Aritomo Yamagata, a politician active in the Meiji and Taisho periods. It was built between 1894-96. Yamagata was responsible for the villa’s overall composition and its garden was created by Jihei Ogawa (commonly known as Ueji).
The grounds are home to three buildings: a main house featuring an early example of the modern “sukiya” style of design, a western hall built in brick designed by Takamasa Niinomi, and a tea arbor in the style of the Yabunouchi school of tea.
The garden - which uses the Higashiyama Mountains as its focal point - is a representative work of rusticity in modern Japanese landscaping that features a stirring flow of water and a wide open lawn space. The stone monolith, which commemorates the gift of Emperor Meiji of two pine saplings to the garden, proclaims in carved verse just how much Aritomo Yamagata cherished this garden, and provides a valuable testament to how the garden was cared for in his lifetime.