[Connecting Culture to the Future: Yokohama's Yamate Western-Style Houses and Gardens]
Early November marked the entrance to autumn. On my way back from Tohoku to Kyoto, I stopped in Yokohama. Transferring from the Shinkansen to a local train, I headed for the hills of Yamate, where many Western-style houses still stand. Walking up the slope from JR Ishikawacho Station, I first headed for the Yamate Italian Hill Garden.
This area came to be known as “Italian Hill” because the Italian Consulate was located here from 1880 to 1886. The current garden was also designed using Italian landscaping styles as a reference. Its defining feature is a geometric design with regularly arranged water features and flower beds. In the well-maintained flower beds, visitors can enjoy seasonal flowers and plants that change their appearance with the seasons. Within the garden stand the striking “Bluff 18 Building” with its red French tile roof and the spire-topped “Diplomat's House.” Both are historic structures, with Bluff House 18 relocated and restored in 1993 and the Diplomat's House in 1997. Stepping inside, visitors encounter recreated Western-style furniture and furnishings from the era, creating a feeling of stepping back in time to life a century ago. Harmonizing with the garden scenery, both buildings remain valuable reminders of the Western architectural culture of Yokohama's Yamate district.
Walking through the residential area, you pass the “Catholic Yamate Church,” Japan's first modern church and the original cathedral of the present-day Catholic Yamate Church, and “Berick Hall,” the former residence of British trader B.R. Berick, before reaching the “Yamate Museum.” This wooden Western-style building is unique among the many Western-style structures here as the only “combined Japanese-Western style residence.” Completed in 1909, the museum displays materials related to Yokohama and Yamate from the era of Westernization through the foreign settlement period to the Great Kanto Earthquake. The building itself is designated as a Yokohama City Historic Building.
Also a must-see, just a 4-minute walk away, is the Yokohama British Consulate. Built in 1937 (Showa 12) to a design by the British Engineering Department in Shanghai, this British Consul-General's residence was a prestigious building, ranked among the highest-status consular residences in East Asia at the time. Features like the sun porch, reception rooms, dining hall, spacious terrace leading to a lawn garden, and plaques—including one with a crown emblem (from the era of George VI) set beside the entrance and another reading “British Consular Residence” on the front side—all attest to its distinguished history as the former British Consul-General's residence.
The tour concluded at “Yamate 111-bankan.” This Spanish-style Western mansion features a beautiful contrast of red tile roofs and white walls. Inside, a double-height hall leads to the dining room and living quarters. The second floor boasts bedrooms with ocean views and a gallery, overlooking the rose garden of Minato-no-Mieru Oka Park. Built in 1926 as the residence of an American, Mr. Raffin, the building stands on this site.
Stepping into any part of the building, one finds the architecture, interior decoration, and garden beautifully interconnected, with the gaze naturally drawn to the sea beyond the windows. There, indeed, lingered the atmosphere of an era that cherished the harmony between daily life and the surrounding landscape. It also conveys how buildings of that time served not only as living spaces but also as venues for socializing and relaxation. Time spent experiencing the seasons in the garden, enjoying music in the salon, and cultivating the mind through art and reading in the study must have been integral parts of daily life. This sensibility, valuing such mental space and spiritual fulfillment as essential to life, likely contributed to the maturation of European culture and supported societal development. That enduring philosophy seems quietly etched into the building's design and the garden's form even now.
Walking through the Western-style houses and gardens on the hills overlooking the sea, one not only encounters remnants of the Meiji Restoration but also feels firsthand how people from foreign cultures cultivated the beauty of their lives in this place. Within the quiet serenity, open vistas overlap, and the Yamate landscape, where history and daily life intertwine, still seems to hold a gentle power that enriches the spirit.
Finally, the fact that many of the Western-style houses remaining in Yamate are open to the public free of charge is entirely due to the careful management by the City of Yokohama and the Yokohama Green Association as public facilities, supported further by local volunteers who aid in their preservation and operation. The very ease with which one can visit these historic buildings is itself an expression of the city's commitment to passing on its culture to the future. Why not spend a moment in the Yamate district, breathing in the scent of culture amidst the crisp autumn air?
Bluff House No. 18
https://maps.app.goo.gl/uRUyzhWDLhCkjG2i6
Diplomat's House (Former Uchida Sadatsuki Residence)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NZTsWj87CfYNNA6dA
Catholic Yamate Church
https://maps.app.goo.gl/YCbLUgCbQbrTbLts8
Berick Hall
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JAwfKSVSyGUNnRRF7
Yamate Museum
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bw74mQ3M48fcuLcu7
Yamate 111-bankan
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cEfCjFC4Tp2feMf4A
Yokohama British Consulate (Former British Consul's Residence)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/s4kBLpEct99k2jmg6
References
https://www.hama-midorinokyokai.or.jp/park/italia/
https://hare-tabi.jp/databox/data.php/guide_yamate_cathedral_ja/code
https://hare-tabi.jp/databox/data.php/guide_yamate_museam_ja/code
https://www.hama-midorinokyokai.or.jp/yamate-seiyoukan/yamate111/
https://www.hama-midorinokyokai.or.jp/yamate-seiyoukan/british-house/
