A great writer Lafcadio Hearn, Japanese name Yakumo Koizumi, admired Japanese gardens, and wrote them in his book,” In a Japanese garden”. He rented this residence from the Negishi family, former middle class Samurai of Matsue Clan, and lived for about 5 months. This house has 3 gardens. This is South garden. Rocks, stepping stones. stone lamp, trees and others are all allocated as they were in the past.
West garden. The gardens of this house are dry landscale gardens. They are sit-and see style gardens.
North garden. The story says that when Yakumo saw a snake crawling from behind Dozo, a storehouse with thick earthen walls, and eating a frog, he felt pity. He placed meat on a plate taking from his meal, and put it on the stone steps in front of Dozo, then said , “Don’t eat a frog”. The story suggests a warm heart of Hearn.
View for South garden from reception room, which was used as bed room or living room by the Hearn family.
The desk and chair are replica. Hearn ordered to make this sort of desk and chair by his special order. Hearn lost his left eyesight in his boyhood days, and his right eyesight was very poor. He used this sort of tall desk to keep his face close to the books for reading and writing. Hearn was about 160 cm tall. Hearn used Horagai, a conch shell placed on the desk to call his family.
Hearn’s bust installed near the Matsue Castle moat.
