- Yanagawa Ohana | Yanagawa and Ohana -

Yanagawa and Tachibana family

The grand forefather of Yanagawa's feudal lords is Muneshige Tachibana, the 2nd Tachibana descendant. During the Sengoku period (1470 - 1568) Kyushu fell under the control of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. When Muneshige fought on Hideyoshi's side and led Otomo Bungo's advance guard to win a clinching battle, he was rewarded with Yanagawa to establish his domain and castle in. The surrounding Chikugo area was a producer of average but not huge quantities of rice, about 130,000 goku or bushels annually. But Muneshige's alliance to Hideyoshi later lost him this domain when Hideyoshi's western army suffered a massive defeat in the famous battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Yoshimasa Tanaka became lord of Yanagawa in Muneshige's place, and immediately began construction on Yanagawa castle, its surrounding township and the many canals inherent to Yanagawa today. Then, more than 20 years later, Muneshige Tachibana became lord of the castle again. For 13 successive generations, up until the Meiji Imperial Restoration of 1868, Yanagawa flourished as the town surrounding Yanagawa castle.

About The Name "Ohana"

In 1697 Akitora Tachibana, the 4th descendant of the Tachibana family, ordered construction on a site measuring about 23,000m² surrounded on all four sides by canals, and built the Shukeitei villa and grounds there. But the area had always been known as "Hanabatake", or "flower field". This name was subsequently abbreviated by locals to "Ohana" or "flower", and the property has been so named ever since. Between 1910 and 1911, Tomoharu Tachibana, the family's 14th direct descendant, made extensive new constructions on the estate and gardens. He built the Western-style Seiyokan Annex, Ohiroma grand hall and Enyukaijo banquet hall, which are all exemplary architectural works of that period. The garden, inspired by the landscape of Matsushima that Tomoharu had seen in Sendai, was subsequently named Shotoen and was designated as a national site of beauty in 1978.