Hirosaki: Fujita memorial garden

A room with a view

The Fujita memorial garden, at the southern end of the castle, was the last port of call in our day in Hirosaki.  It was built in the Taisho era, 1919, by a prominent local industrialist. And, like a lot of similarly statused people of the era, the Fujitas combined Japanese and western styles. Rather than combining it in the one building, like the Kyu Furukawa Teien in Kita Ku Tokyo, the Fujitas built a Japanese building, which looks out over the garden, and a western building that contains a cafe in it today.

The Japanese - kan
 

The imperial seal - I'm curious whether this was a part of the
original design - I guess state Shintoism had taken root by 1919 and
it's possible.

The Fujita family crest

Calligraphy hanging on the wall 

Translation

Calligraphy

The western building

With western furnishings

 

Take stairs down to a garden below

Irises in the garden

 

 

Hiro's nieces were familiar with the garden as a place that
had been used in some TV drama.... 

Not a good photo, but a charming well. When the water
is poured over the rocks there is a musical tinkle as it
falls into a vessel below.