Kamakura Museum of Literature

Rose Garden and Writers' Museum make a nice combination

Tomoko Kamishima May 21, 2013 - 1 min read

<p>The museum is only a 10-minute walk from Hase Kannon Temple, and 20-minute walk from Yuigahama Beach!</p>

<p>This variety of rose is named “Zen”</p>

<p>This tunnel is a part of this villa</p>

<p>The roses burst into bloom in mid May</p>

<p>Visitors enjoying a pleasant afternoon</p>

<p>Rickshaw tour guides researching the garden</p>

<p>Originally a summer villa of Marquis Maeda (15th head of Maeda clan)</p>

May is the season for roses in Japan. In the garden of the Kamakura Museum of Literature, 221 roses (186 varieties!) burst into bloom in mid May. This was originally a summer villa of Marquis Maeda (15th head of the Maeda clan), but the current western style house was built after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. In 1983, the Maeda Family donated this beautiful villa to Kamakura city and since then, it has been open to the public as a museum that exhibits novelists’ (including Yasunari Kawabata) hand written manuscripts, letters, favorite personal items, and so on.

Tomoko Kamishima @tomoko.kamishima

Japan is a small island nation, but we have a huge number of surprising things to discover here. Many of these delights can be found when you step off the main street onto small side paths. I really enjoy studying about and researching various aspects of traditional Japanese culture, and then sha...