Jun 6, 2014 - 1 min read

Oyamazaki Villa Art Museum

Taisho Era house set in a beautiful garden

By Cathy Cawood

Community writer

The graceful main building with its tall chimney

One of the villa's gables rises from the trees.

The garden is green and lovely in May and June

A peaceful pond surrounded by mature trees is beautiful in every season

Orange koi glides beneath a rippled surface

A wisteria covered pergola stands beside the pond

One side of the annex designed by famous architect Tadao Ando.

For me, the most striking piece of art was a metal sculpture of a leaping hare

Wall of moss covered boulders on the road up to the villa

Oyamazaki Villa was built between 1912 and 1932, and is home to an excellent collection of objects from the Mingei Arts and Crafts Movement. A modern annex designed by famous architect Tadao Ando contains original Monet water lily paintings, and is open to the public. The garden is one of the most beautiful I have seen. I visited in June, when everything was lush and green, but the garden is outstanding at cherry blossom time, and also in autumn when there are many red maple trees.

Tadao Ando

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By Cathy Cawood

Community writer

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Bonson Lam 10 years ago

The Southwestern part of Kyoto is seriously under rated. With whiskey distilleries on one side, beautiful gardens like Yoshiminedera in the mountains above Muko on the other side, and chic Taisho villas that Cathy has discovered for us, this really shows the diversity of Kyoto Prefecture less than 30 minutes from either Kyoto or Osaka stations. Well done!

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