Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden)

What Is the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden)?

The Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) (加藤家住宅（茂原牡丹園）, Katō-ke Jūtaku, Mobara Botan-en) is a Kazusa farmstead in Yamazaki, Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture, whose thatched late Edo period main house and nagayamon gatehouse of 1837 were registered together as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on 1 July 2003. The Kato family has turned the grounds into a peony garden, and the property opens to the public for about three weeks each spring while the flowers are out.

"Mobara Peony Garden" is part of the registered name, and locally the whole homestead goes by that name. Chiba Prefecture has two other registered properties called Kato Family Residence, in Futtsu and in Ichikawa. They belong to different households and are unrelated to this one.

A Farmstead Set Against the Hills

The main house of the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) faces south with a low wooded hill at its back, on the edge of the Boso uplands. The gatehouse stands to the south of it. Visitors walk in through the gatehouse, and the first thing in front of them across the forecourt is the big thatched roof. The garden then climbs the slope: a stepped path loops around behind the house and brings you back down to the front.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered both buildings, as numbers 12-0049 and 12-0050, for their contribution to the historic landscape. For the main house it pointed to the neat thatched roof set against the hills, which keeps the look of the satoyama countryside of old Kazusa Province; the gatehouse was valued as part of the same scene.

The main house is dated to the late Edo period and the gatehouse to 1837. Sources differ on the age of the house, and the family's own tradition places it in the Kyoho era.

How a Farmhouse Yard Became a Peony Garden

According to an interview published by the Chiba regional site Chibagoto, the previous head of the family, who ran a landscaping business, fell for peonies on a visit to a peony garden in Fukushima Prefecture and began growing them at home. The Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) opened under that name in 1983.

The Mobara City Tourism Association counts 250 varieties and 2,500 plants; the same interview puts it at about 200 varieties and 2,000 plants, on roughly 5,000 square meters of beds. There are also some 500 herbaceous peonies. Azaleas, snowball viburnum and handkerchief trees follow the tree peonies into bloom, so the colors shift over the season. Open blooms are shaded from sun and rain by paper parasols planted among the beds.

Opening Season and Admission

You can only see the grounds and buildings of the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) during the spring opening, timed to the peonies. It usually runs from around mid-April into early May, with no closing days, and hours are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Dates move each year with the weather, so it is worth phoning the garden (0475-22-4224) before you go.

Admission is 1,000 yen for adults and free for junior high school students and younger, with free parking (checked September 2026). Pets are not allowed. The paths include steps and slopes, so wear comfortable shoes. The owners say the flowers look freshest in the cool of early morning or late afternoon, and photographers can ask about entering before opening time.

Getting to the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden)

The nearest station is Mobara on the JR Sotobo Line, about 3.6 kilometers east-southeast of the Kato Family Residence (Mobara Peony Garden) in a straight line. The Mobara City Tourism Association gives the route as a Kominato bus bound for Midorigaoka Rizon, Nagara Nakashita or Long Wood Station, about 15 minutes to the Funatsuki Jinja-mae stop, then a walk of around 5 minutes.

By car it is about 20 minutes from either the Mobara-kita or the Mobara-Chonan interchange on the Ken-O Expressway, and there is parking for 100 cars. The last stretch runs along narrow lanes between fields where two cars cannot always pass, so drive with care.