These days, you can take a boat ride along the 930 kilometer system of canals and moats that surround Yanagawa Castle as a tourist attraction.
Back in the Edo period, the moat was a source of water for daily life, as well as a source of protection for the castle. If you were to enter the moat, guards would immediately jump on you and shout, “Thief!”
The only ones who could use the moat as a means of transportation were the Tachibana family, who had a dock located behind Ohana that remains to this day.
The original residence of Ohana was built by Sadayoshi Tachibana, the 5th feudal lord of the Yanagawa domain during the mid-Edo period. Sadayoshi had many concubines at Yanagawa Castle, but when they started to have children, he built a home for them to live in. This is the history of Ohana as a “home.”
With that many concubines and children living under one roof, you’d expect some fighting over power and control. But as far as the family records show, there were no major conflicts to speak of. This was especially fortunate for them, as families that caused too much trouble during these times were often disposed of in order to avoid causing issues for the shogunate. The fact that the Tachibana residence lasted through the eras shows just how harmonious they were.
Sadayoshi named the residence “Ohana Batake,” or “Flower Garden,” because of the seasonal flowers that are planted here.
Normally in Japanese you wouldn’t add the prefix “o” to your own name or property. “O” is used to show a sense of respect and politeness to the person you’re addressing, so why does Ohana use it in their own name? They say that because locals loved the place so much when it became a restaurant and inn, that they naturally started calling it by the nickname the locals gave it -- Ohana.
You can sense this is the kind of place that is adored for generations. It started as a home but became so much more. How about in your life -- what have you inherited from your ancestors? What do you want to pass down? Think about that for a bit before moving on.
