🍃🍂AUTUMN AT THE VILLA😌🍵
The leaves are rather late to begin their reddening this year, but the onset of colder weather hints that their transformation is imminent.
This season of crisp mornings and clear skies is one of the finest to enjoy the city's gardens.
The Old Mitsui Family Shimogamo Villa (旧三井家下鴨別邸) is located to the south of Shimogamo Shrine. It was commissioned in 1925 by Mitsui Hachirōemon (三井八郎右衛門), 10th head of the Mitsui Kita Family (head family of the 11 Mitsui family branches).
The Shimogamo Villa was intended as a rest house for members of the Mitsui family visiting the Akina Rei-sha (京都顕名霊社), a shrine constructed in 1909 on this site to enshrine ancestors of the Mitsui.
As the Mitsui family had another residence in the Kiyamachi area, they transferred the buildings to speed up construction of the Shimogamo Villa in 1925.
The Taishō period structures (some of Japan's best preserved) were designated an Important Cultural Property in 2011.
#Kyoto #Taisho #京都
A glimpse into the tearoom's 'mizuya' (水屋)...this is a room adjacent to the tea ceremony room, where utensils are washed and certain preparations made for tea ceremony.
That wonderful moment when you realise you have the entire house and grounds to yourself🙌
The villa's garden is centred around a gourd-shaped pond, fed by water channelled from the Izumi-gawa (泉川).
In 1949 the Mitsui family handed over ownership of the villa to the nation.
From 1951 to 2007 the residence housed the chief of the Kyōto Family Court, but after becoming an important cultural property extensive restoration was carried out and the site opened to the public in 2016.
Camellia Tea Ceremony