A Study of Murin-an's Past Scenery from Old Photographs Property of General Yamagata Memorial Museum

Abstract

Designated Place of Scenic Beauty "Murin-an Garden" was built between 1894 to 1898. The garden was created by Jihei Ogawa VII (7th), under Aritomo Yamagata’s instructions. This naturalistic garden received high ratings ever since it was created. Old photographs of Murin-an were newly found showing old sceneries of Murin-an, photographs are owned by the General Yamagata Memorial Foundation. This paper analyzes these old photographs to enhanced our knowledge of the former scenery of Murin-an, and to decipher how the garden was utilized in the past.Scenery in old photos will be compared with the current scenery, as well as the utilization differences of the garden.In these old photographs, are the two young pine trees that the Meiji Emperor gifted Aritomo, called "Onshi Chisho," but after they wilted and died, new pines were planted in replacement. The huge scenic rock, "Daigo-no-Ohishi" was brought from the Daigo mountains, but currently hard to see because of tree branches. Other differences in scenery between the old photos and today include scenery around the tea house, the trees growing around the garden border, and the looks of the garden path. Hence, referring to old photographs assist the analysis of garden transitions.