Shokado (松花堂)

Located in Yawata City, Kyoto Prefecture, Shokado houses a Japanese garden and an art museum. It is designated as a National Historic Site.

It was a hut and garden built by Shojo SHOKADO at the beginning of the Edo period (1637), and has now been turned into the Municipal Yawata Shokado Garden and Shokado Art Museum.

Features
Shokado Garden
Gaien (Outer garden): Chisen (ponds and springs) walk-through Japanese Garden with about 400 kinds of bamboo.
Teahouses: Shoin, Baiin, Chikuin
Washbasin of Kinuta (stone block for beating cloth)
Shokado Art Museum Annex - Gallery (two rooms)
Ominaeshizuka (The Stone Pagoda for a woman who died in a tragedy)
Naien (Inner garden)
Shokado (cultural property designated by Kyoto Prefecture) - tea hut/tea room and jibutsudo (a small hut with a Buddhist alcove)
Shokodo-shoin (a cultural property registered by Kyoto Prefecture with traditional architecture) donated by Hideaki KOBAYAKAWA
Higashikurumazuka tomb (an ancient tomb)
Shokado Art Museum
Museum shop "Ominaeshi"
Kitcho (the restaurant that started the original Shokado Lunch Box)

Access
From Kuzuha Station or Yawata-shi Station on the Keihan Main Line run by Keihan Electric Railway, take the Keihan Bus and after ten minutes get off at 'Oshiba-shokado-mae' bus stop, which is just outside Shokado. From Matsui-yamate Station on the JR Katamachi Line, take the Keihan Bus and after fifteen minutes get off at 'Oshiba-shokado-mae' bus stop.

Other nearby historic sites
Hakkakudo: two minutes on foot
Shoho-ji Temple (Yawata City): eight minutes on foot
Iwashimizu Hachiman-gu Shrine: fifteen minutes on foot

[Original Japanese]