was acquired second (1673–80, approximately 30 years after founding), and the south part was acquired last (1787, over 100 years later). The pine great hall burnt down in a small fire in 1925, but the rest of the building is original. Many parts of the compound have been designated as important cultural properties, starting in 1952. It is open about half the year, during the tourist season, from mid-March to mid-July and again mid-September to mid-December. The first floor is open on a walk-up basis, while the second floor requires advance registration for guided tours (in Japanese) given a few times per day. The first floor of the museum features a large back garden, a small inner garden, three tea houses, a large banquet hall facing the back garden () that could fit up to 100 people (main location where parties were held), a smaller banquet hall () facing the inner garden, and a vast kitchen, together with exhibits. The back garden contains a racked gravel bed (rock garden) and a trellised (pergola) pine tree (second generation, about 100 years old). There are many details, such as a sword rack and sword chest where katana were checked to prevent violence – guests placed their sword on the rack, and it was then moved to the chest. There are paintings, most significantly Plum Blossoms by Buson, with other colorful paintings in the pine room, and records of the menus, which were paid for on a "bill afterwards" basis. In addition to housing many fine paintings, it was a salon for noted haiku poets, and many poems are preserved in the archives. The second floor features three linked front rooms, each of different designs; these could be connected by removing the doors for larger parties. There are many paintings on the partitions, which have become stained with the soot of centuries of candles. In one room the paintings have not been cleaned, so the pictures are not very visible, but the age is; in another the paintings were cleaned a century ago, showing an intermediate state; while there are more recent paintings which are unstained and brilliantly colored. At the south end there is a recessed raised stage for musicians to perform; they entered by a side door from a side corridor. There are two smaller middle rooms, and the highest-ranked room is in the back, away from the street and overlooking