The residence was built in 1863 by the 13th lord of Kaga, Maeda Nariyasu, for his mother, Takako (Shinryuin), the wife of the 12th lord, Narinaga. It was located in the direction of Tatsumi (southeast) from Kanazawa Castle, and it was initially called Tatsumigoden Palace, as the Takatsuka family in Kyoto, Takako's parents' house, was called Tatsumi-den Palace. Every detail of the building is lavishly decorated with the craftsmanship of the Kaga clan.
It is a rare combination of the Buke shoin-zukuri and Sukiya-style(Chaya-style) Shoin-zukuri styles and is the only surviving palace of a feudal lord's regular household in Japan. The lower floor consists of the official meeting room "Ekken no Ma" (room for meeting superiors), a hall, a sleeping room, a living room, and a tea room, while the upper floor consists of rooms in the Sukiya-style shoin style, each with a different atmosphere. The main feature of the rooms is the vivid colors applied in various places, such as the Ranma in "Ekken no Ma" and the colored walls in "Gunsei-no-ma." The richly detailed decorations, such as the walls covered with gold sandstone paper and the shoji screens decorated with pictures of flowers and birds, are also not to be missed. Also noteworthy is the bold use of Western culture at the end of the Edo period, such as the use of imported Dutch glassware from the Netherlands for the Yukimi shoji screens.
