Rokkaen

Designed by Josiah Conder, it is a two-story wooden building with a four-story tower. Part of the garden is designated as a national place of scenic beauty.

Construction began in 1911, designed by Josiah Conder, an English architect famous for designing the Rokumeikan, and was completed in 1913.

The Western-style building with a four-story boarding house, the Japanese-style building, and the pond garden in front of the building are designated as National Important Cultural Properties of Japan as valuable buildings representing the Meiji and Taisho Periods.

It is a valuable structure that retains almost all of its original appearance on a vast site of over 18,000 square meters overlooking the Ibi and Nagara Rivers. The garden is designated as a national place of scenic beauty.

Matcha green tea is available in the lobby.
(with seasonal dry confections made by Kuwana’s long-established Japanese confectionery “Hananosha”).
There is also a souvenir corner with a variety of Kuwana’s representative souvenirs.

Next to the hotel, there is a restaurant “Rocca” where you can enjoy a meal with a view of the Western-style building.

Western-style building
This two-story wooden Western-style house was designed by Josiah Conder, an English architect known for designing Rokumeikan, in the style of a Victorian house. The exterior features include a four-story tower in the northeast corner, a polygonal veranda on the first floor facing the garden, and a sunroom on the second floor. In the original plans drawn by Condor, the tower house was three stories high, but it was changed to four stories in accordance with Seiroku’s wish “to have a view of the Ibigawa River. While the first floor was designed in a Western style, the second floor was a blend of Japanese and Western styles, with a Western-style room and Japanese-style sliding doors, and storage shelves were built into the closet. Currently, the third and fourth floors of the tower house are not open to the public.

Japanese-style house
The Japanese-style wing, built by Suejiro Ito, a carpenter in the service of the Moroto family, is a one-story wooden structure (partly two-story), and was completed in 1912, before the Western-style wing was completed. At that time, when a Western-style house and a Japanese-style house were built together, they were often separated, but in the Moroto residence, the Japanese-style house, which is larger than the Western-style house, is directly connected by a wall, and the Japanese-style house is said to have been the center of daily life.

A wooden corridor runs around the perimeter, and a tatami-mat corridor is located between the corridor facing the inner garden on the north side of the Japanese-style house and each room, for the use of the master, family members, and guests.

Main Garden
Located on the south side of the building, this Japanese garden is centered around a lawn area and a pond, with a stream, a waterfall, and a dry stream skillfully arranged. At the time of construction, there was a Western-style circular flowerbed of roses with a fountain in the center, designed by Condor, near the water source on the east side of the garden, but it was removed during renovations from the late Taisho Period to the early Showa Period. In the beginning, the pond was connected to the Ibigawa River, and was a “tidal garden” where the water level of the pond changed according to the ebb and flow of the river.

Inner Garden
The garden was originally an open-air style garden in conjunction with the original tea ceremony room and waiting room, but the tea ceremony room was removed during renovations in 1938 and a detached house (used as a Buddhist room at the time) was built. This renovation was supervised by Sogo Matsuo, the 10th head of the Matsuo School, who had been in contact with the Moroto family, and the main garden was also renovated.