Sankeien

Sankeien

Sankeien was built by Sankei Hara (real name: Tomitaro Hara; 1868-1939), a businessman who made a fortune through raw silk trading during the Meiji and Taisho eras. It was opened to the public in 1906.
Although severely damaged after the air raid that occurred in 1945, it was donated to the city of Yokohama by the Hara family in 1953 and an organization called Sankei Hoshokai was established which conducted repairs to restore it into the condition we now see.
Sankeien is a completely Japanese garden with a total area of approximately 175,000 square meters. Made of the Gaien and Naien, many historic structures that have been moved from Kyoto and Kamakura and reconstructed here stand on its grounds (10 important cultural assets of the country and 3 tangible cultural properties of the city). Excluding a few, all of these buildings are rented out to groups holding tea ceremonies and Japanese poetry writing events. One of them called Kakushokaku can also be used for business dinners and social gatherings. There is also a tea-ceremony room in the lobby of the Sankei Shiryokan, a museum exhibiting documents related to Sankei Hara as well as works of writers who were his acquaintances and other artworks.