Kyu Iwasaki-tei Garden

This estate preserves the former residence of the family that founded one of Japan's great industrial conglomerates, combining a wooden Japanese wing with a lavish Western-style mansion designed by a British architect in the late nineteenth century. The mansion's veranda, carved columns, and imported wallpapers exemplify the elite embrace of Western taste in the Meiji era, while a separate Swiss-chalet-style billiard hall stands in the garden. The contrast of two architectural worlds opens a rare window onto a vanished aristocratic Tokyo.