It was CHOU-TOKU2(in 996) when SHIKIBU visited TAKEFU with her father appointed an ECHIZEN provincial governor.
In those days there were few opportunities for ladies living in KYOTO,the capital,to come to such a rural area.Spending harash winter and getting in touch with advanced technology in China through SOU-JIN(Chinese)staying in MATSUBARA Visitors House could have greatly influenced SHIKIBU’s mentality.This is what has been commemorated in this statue.
Setting out ponds and miniature hills of which landscapes borrowed from mountains surrounding the TAKRFU basin,aristocrats noble house of Heian era are recreated at a very large site of 3000TSUBO(2.5 acre)
This is the only one garden in Japan which has such elaborately imitated SHINDEN-ZUKURI style where you can appreciate the aesthetic elegance of noble aristocrats in those days. In a garden,this is a monument inscribed with a TANKA poem by chirographers TANIZAKI-JYUNICHIRO and ENCHI-FUMIKO who were influenced by the Tale of Genji.