Arab News Japan

TOKYO: The Hatoyama family home located in the Bunkyo-ku district of Tokyo has been open to the public since 1996.  

The English-style house that was built in 1924 after the Great Tokyo Earthquake was home to Ichiro Hatoyama, the founder of the Liberal Party and post-war Conservative Prime Minister, and his grandson Yukio Hatoyama, who also became Prime Minister under the banner of the Democratic Party, which he helped to create.

Four generations of great politicians have passed through post-war history living in this beautiful Taisho-era mansion.

Today the house retraces the milestones in the political history of the Hatoyama family. On the first floor, there is a small living room with large sofas on which visitors can sit. Three rooms are adjacent with an adjoining veranda and a bust carved by Prime Minister Yuichiro Hatoyama. On the walls there are original paintings by Georges Rouault and historical reminders of political moments marking the imprint of the family throughgifts given by heads of state.

Upstairs in the ballroom, visitors can contemplate the verdant garden adorned with statues.  In the adjoining room, a commemorative library with books in Japanese and English, a copy of the friendship treaty signed by Ichiro Hatoyama between Japan and the Soviet Union, and medals of the Order of the Grand Cordon awarded to different members of the family are arranged in display cases.

On a televisions screen, Yukio Hatoyama explains the Japanese concept of Yuai (brotherhood) based on the principles of mutual understanding and independence and coexistence that was developed by his grandfather Ichiro and which he himself took up in his political manifestos.