Former Italian Embassy villa

This beautiful house, located at the Chuzenji lake side, was designed by Mr. Anthony Laymond who was an American architect and built in 1928 for the Italian Embassy's Summer Villa.
The Japanese Government and the Tochigi Prefectural Government maintained and arranged it as the Italian Embassy Villa Memorial Park after transferred the villa from the Italian Government in 1999. Currently, it has been opened to public as the symbol of good friendship between two countries, Italy and Japan.

Western style Architecture in Nikko

What type of architectures in Nikko do you imagine?
Most people think about typical Japanese style architectures like Buddhism temples or Shinto shrines.
However, there are some historic western style of architectures in Nikko. One of those is shown in the image uploaded above.
The Georgian style of this house was built in late 1800s or early 1900s for the summer villa of an American trader J. W. Horne who imported and introduced phonograph firstly in Japan. Therefore, he was called Father of Phonograph of Japan. The house is now used for the Western style restaurant called Meiji-no-yakata which means the House of Meiji Period.

Western-style residence, the former Iwasaki Family House

This exotic atmospheric house is designed by Josiah Conder. He designed the house based on the Jacobean Style architecture of England, and also Islamic motif was adopted to the house.
The house was built in 1896 for the residence of the Iwasaki Family who was the founder of the Mitsubishi Group. The house was requisitioned by GHQ(Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers) after World war II and it has been released to Japanese Government since 1953.
This is now important cultural assets of japan and it has been opened to public under control of Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The image was taken by Olympus Pen E-P1 with M. Zuiko Digital 14-45mm 1:3.5-5.6
1/160 f/7.0 ISO200

The house, remains of prosperity

The house, remains of prosperity, a photo by photoholic image on Flickr.

It is not an image of Hyde Park or Regent's Park in London. The image was taken in the central area of Tokyo.
This house was built in 1917 for the residence of Furukawa Toranosuke who was third generations of the founder of the Furukawa Business Group that made big profit from the copper mine at the Meiji era (1868～1912).
The house was designed by Josiah Conder who was a British architect, and he was called Father of Modern Architecture of Japan.
The house has the European style of garden, designed also by Josiah Conder, beside the Japanese Garden.

Just after World War II, the house was used as a billet for the British Officers of the Allied Forces because it provided them almost similar atmosphere and family-like comfort of their home country.
Currently, the house and its gardens are properties of Japanese Government therefore these are opened to public.

Image was taken by Olympus Pen E-P2 with Voigtlander Nokton 25mm 1:0.95, 1/500 with f5.6, ISO speed 400, Aperture Priority AE, -0.7 of Exposure Bias

Viscount Aoki's villa in Nasu

Viscount Aoki's villa in Nasu, a photo by photoholic image on Flickr.

The house was built in 1888 as the summer villa for Viscount Aoki Syuzou （青木周蔵） and his wife Elisabeth von Rhade who was a daughter of the nobility of Germany.
The house was designed and built by Baron Matsugasaki Tsumunaga （松ケ崎萬長1858～1921） who studied architectural technology in the Berlin Institute of Technology in 1871.
The house was designated as the Important Cultural Properties of Japan since December 1999, and it has been opened for public as the Aoki Syuzou Memorial Musium.

taken by Olympus Pen E-P2 with Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f0.95,