Visiting Suizenji Joiuen Garden, Kumamoto, Japan/Carlos
Pueblo
On the 5th
day of Kumamoto, Amy didn’t feel well due to marching several days
of rain and
cold weather. We canceled a plan to visit Beppu city of hot spring
spa resort east
of Kumamoto facing the inner sea of Seto Naikai. Instead, we
decided to
visit Suizenji Joiuen Garden just across the street from our hotel. It
was a
beautiful days and meeting crowded visitors. It was on Sunday, the 2nd
day of a
spring festival, matsuri, free of entrance to encourage people to join the
membership
and contribution to rebuild earthquake damaged Kumamoto Castle.
We started
from outside shopping strip with many shops and entered the garden
with handy
booklet delivered by volunteers. It was the 3rd day of cherry
blossom
peak and
flowers were still very charming.
There was a
life band singing on the platform of Noh Theater and I asked the
volunteer ladies
if Ishikawa Sayuri was coming to perform, they said oh, no.
Ishikawa is
a famous singer from Kumamoto. She would perform in Tokyo in
order to
raise more fund for the Castle. I was busy to check on every beautiful
cherry
blooming tree for my record like in Tidal Basin, Hyde and Huntington Parks,
and Green
Park in Ireland. In adjacent to the Noh theater, there are two huge
grounds
called Sakura spacious ground and retreat area. People sit on the ground
to enjoy
their drink and lunch box. It is a kind of spring festival called matsuri. Amy
was
consuming her box and a delicious fish on a concrete bench while I was still
taking my
photos.
I overheard a Taiwanese guide to introduce the
scenery to his group that the man
made hill
with Mt. Fuji shape called Tsukiyama and a spring fed lake, Ezu Lake,
symbol the
Lake Biwa near Kyoto. Colorful koi carp swimming freely in the pond
with small arc
shape bridges to connect islands. Would it be nice to have some
lotus
blooming as well?
We went to
visit the Izumi Shrine and extant Buddhist temple, Gentakuji passing
through the
spring of longevity. Some visitor really drink it for longer life. There is
a life
museum of sand art performance, putting colorful sand on a plate similar to
the Tibetan
art work. I read the old document hanging on the wall about one of
the lord
Hosokawa.
As a matter
of fact, there are two Hosokawa statues in the garden, the 1st lord
Yuusai and
the 3rd lord Tadatoshi. Tadatoshi started to build this garden and
finished by
the 4th and 5th lords in 60 years. I did mention that how
the Hosokawa
replaced
Kato on my previous article about the Castle. Hosokawa had lasted for
235 years.
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