After a seven-year restoration, Kusatsu City will open the site to the public on April 27.
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The continued project to preserve and reconstruct the feudal headquarters at the historical landmark in Kusatsu City of Shiga Prefecture (Kusatsu 1 chome) will be completed by the end of March. Requiring seven years in restoration, the charming building, which face the old Tokaido Road, were one of Japan's largest feudal headquarters and bring back to life images of the Kusatsu post town of old.
The headquarters served as a place of lodging for feudal lords (daimyo) of the Edo period. Although there were formerly close to one thousand of these headquarters nationwide, the adverse effects of development have reduced this number to approximately forty today. It is said that "along the Tokaido Road, this is the only headquarters remaining completely intact". The Kusatsu Headquarters was constructed in the year 1635. Because it served as a kind of junction along the old Tokaido Road, many renowned figures from Japanese history stayed there, including the famous German doctor Philipp Franz von Siebold, who is listed in the headquarter records among others. Roughly 1600 square meters of the eastern section of the headquarters facing the Tokaido Road were restored. In order to remain true to the wooden, tile-roofed buildings of the time, drawings of the premises from that period were also consulted for reference. Presently, the city is working hard at re-landscaping the garden, as well as restoring the stables, guard houses, and other related structures. The city is scheduled to open the site to the pubic beginning April 27, after the restoration is completed. |
