Shimeisō Spring Garden 四明荘湧水庭園

Official explanation

The Shimeisō Spring Garden offers visitors a chance to take in the beauty of traditional Japanese architecture and garden design while enjoying tea made with water drawn from the spring within the grounds.

Sometime during the Meiji era (1868–1912), a doctor from Kyoto named Itō Genzō found a way to take advantage of the plentiful water in Shimabara. He had a retreat built here as a way to escape the city’s summer heat. The rooms were built above ponds filled with spring water that cooled the house without the use of electricity. Today, this home is open to the public. A tatami-mat room looks out on the garden’s three ponds, which capture thousands of tons of spring water every day. The temperature and quality of the water has not changed in over 200 years—the air is always kept cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and the garden remains a lush green year-round.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.