“Kodokan” shining with plum and cherry blossoms A tatami floored school to teach the status of Edo

2017.04.26

“Kodokan” shining with plum and cherry blossoms A tatami floored school to teach the status of Edo

In 1603, Ieyasu TOKUGAWA opened
“Edo shogunate”.
During Edo period, the most influential person was called “Shogun”.

At that time, the following status to Shogun was
“Gosanke (three major families)”;
“Owari Domein” (located in the current Aichi prefecture),
“Kishu Domein” (located in the current Wakayama and Mie prefectures),
and
“Mito Domein” (located in the current Aichi prefecture).

One of them, Mito-Tokugawa family’s residential castle named Mito-jo castle is constructed
simpler than Nagoya-jo castle in Owari and Wakayama-jo castle in Kishu, and a characteristic as a
“government office”
is stronger than
“castle”.

“Former Kyudokan”
in site is a building to be built as a
“Domain school”
in 1841, and some institutions are assigned as important cultural properties.

A lot of students spent their times at ordinary tatami floored Japanese rooms.
Also the 15th shogun Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA was one of them.

We can feel elegance from the tatami, alcoves and hanging scrolls.
When they saw a view beyond opened shojis, I wondered what they thought.

An outstanding garden
“Kairakuen”
located within walking distance from Mito-jo castle, is one of three outstanding gardens in Japan,
and it’s the 2nd largest city park in the world following to Central Park in NY.

In the site, there are 3,000 plum trees and 130 cherry trees, and
“Ume (plum blossoms) festival in Mito”
and
“Sakura (cherry blossoms) festival in Mito”
are held every year.
In this year, Ume festival is held from 2/18 ~ 3/31, and Sakura festival is held from 4/1 ~ 4/15.

Mito is a good town to study.
Just now, plum and cherry blossoms are the best season to see.

Source of photo: http://www.mitokoumon.com/kankou/%E5%BC%98%E9%81%93%E9%A4%A8-2.html

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