江戸時代の駒込巣鴨地域にはいくつかの大名屋敷があったが、染井通りの南側部分に面していた（抱屋敷も含む）のが、伊勢国藤堂（津）藩江戸屋敷（染井屋敷）である。第2代藩主藤堂高次の治世期にあたる万治元年（1658）に成立した。

駒込・巣鴨の園芸を代表する伊藤伊兵衛は、かつてこの屋敷に出入りする下男的な存在であり、藤堂家で不要になった花木を自分の庭に運んできて培養し、霧島つつじ・椿・楓など数多くの種類を保有するようになったといわれている。この屋敷図は下屋敷内の様子を描いたものとして貴重である。

文献※によると表居間、奥部屋、茶屋、（能）舞台、米蔵、長屋といった建物や、辻番所、所塀、もがり塀などの区画施設の名が見られ、第二代藩主高次が動物好きであったことから鳥長屋が八棟あった。

このほか、一時期ヤマアラシ、鶴、将軍家から下賜された白熊も飼っていたといわれている。屋敷内には大型の塀や堀が張り巡らされ霧島ツツジのほか、紅葉や松、熊笹などが植えられており、樹木はいずれも大木だったようである。

作庭は元禄期頃で、侘びは少なく「武気」「勇気」のある庭であったと評している。

また、石造物が数多くあり、灯籠のほか、不動明王や具利伽羅龍、獅子に乗った観音のような像等やや変わった珍しいものであったと伝えられている。
（※「江戸周辺の大名屋敷　小川祐司」）

A shimo yashiki (suburban residence) owned by the Toudou clan. The clan took up residence here as a result of the Great Fire of Meireki (also known as the Furisode Fire). The Toudou clan was a tozama daimyou ("outside" feudal lord) family that owned a domain assessed at approximately 320,000 koku (1.6 million bushels) of rice in Ise no kuni (Ise Province, located in modern day Mie Prefecture). Clan founder Toudou Takatora is said to have designed Edo Castle. The Somei yashiki (the Toudou clan residence at Somei), was a vast property of 68,000 tsubo (approx. 224,793 m2), including the suburban residence and the kakae yashiki (farmland residence), and was home to around 2,000 vassals.

So what did a feudal lord's residence actually look like?

There were many residences of feudal lords in the Komagome-Sugamo area in the Edo period. The Ise Province Toudou (Tsu) han (domain) Edo residence (Somei residence) faced the southern side of Somei Street (this included the farmland residence). It was established in Manji period 1 (1658), during the rule of the second lord of the Tsu Domain, Toudou Takatsugu.

Itou Ihei, the face of Komagome and Sugamo horticulture, was a kind of manservant who frequented this residence. It is said that he took flowers and trees that the Toudou clan no longer needed to his personal garden and cultivated them there, eventually amassing a large variety of plants, including Kirishima tsutsuji (azaleas), camellias, and maples. This picture of the residence is valued because it shows the interior appearance of the suburban residence grounds.

In reference materials*, the names of buildings like the omoteima (parlors), okubeya (inner rooms), chaya (teahouses), nou butai (stages for Nou performances), komegura (rice granaries), and nagaya (terrace houses), as well as partitions such as tsujibansho (guard stations), tokoro hei (details unknown), and mogaribei (bamboo fences). It even seems that Takatsugu, an animal lover, had eight torinagaya (aviaries) built on the grounds.

He is also said to have at some point owned a porcupine, a crane, and even a polar bear granted to him by the shogunate family. Large walls and moats stretched across the grounds, and there were many large trees and shrubs, including azaleas, maples, pines, and kumazasa (dwarf bamboo).

The gardens were built in the Genroku period (c. 1688 - 1704), and are noted as being bold and militant, lacking in simplicity.

There are also reports of many stone figures, including tourou (lanterns), Fudou Myouou (statues of the Buddhist deity Acala), Kurikararyuu (statues of a dragon coiled around a sword), Kannon (statues of the Buddhist deity Guanyin) riding a lion, and other unusual figures.
(* "Edo Shuuhen no Daimyou Yashiki" by Yuuji Ogawa)

Farmers who already lived in Somei when the Toudou clan took up residence there following the Great Fire of Meireki began frequenting the suburban residence to maintain its gardens. Plants that were no longer needed in the residence gardens were taken home to the personal gardens of the farmers, who became gardeners in their own right by cultivating azaleas, camellias, maples, and other plants they had received.

Thanks to their efforts, by the end of the Edo period, Somei had become the main center of horticulture in the city of Edo. British botanist Robert Fortune even wrote about the village in one of his books, stating "I have never seen, in any part of the world, such a large number of plants cultivated for sale."

So what exactly did the gardeners of Somei village do?
We can catch a glimpse of their activities through the following two types of documents.

At the end , take a stroll through the garden of Itou Ihei, known as the top gardener in Edo.

This picture shows an image of Itou Ihei's garden at the end of the Genbun period (c. 1736 - 1741) as painted by Kondou Kiyoharu, a famous artist of ukiyoe (Edo period prints) at that time.
It was printed to advertise the azaleas of the area to bring visitors there in late April when the flowers were in full bloom, and can be thought of as similar to the tourist pamphlets of today.

According to the "Shinpen Musashi Fudo Kikou" (a typography of Musashi Province), a single Kirishima azalea plant was brought from its birthplace in Satsuma no kuni (Satsuma Province, in modern day Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefectures) to Oosaka in the Shouhou period (1644 - 1647) and propagated there through layering, after which five plants were sent to Kyouto. These beautiful shrubs were given the names Fujisan, Rinkaku, Menkou, Musan, and Karamatsu. Of these, Fujisan and Rinkaku were particularly superb, and were planted in the gardens of the imperial court, while the remaining three plants were sent to Somei in Meireki year 2. They went on to be grafted to form new saplings, which were then spread throughout Edo and the rest of Japan. Lovely flowers were said to bloom on these shrubs every spring.

This image is reproduced here splendidly, so visitors must have had this guide in hand as they strolled through the garden to view the flowers.

Now let us imagine we are in the Edo period and explore the garden of Itou Ihei starting at the entrance.

A person thought to be a samurai is holding his hands behind his back and gazing at the "tsutsuji ikekaki (azalea hedges)" and "Kirishima uekomi (Kirishima shrubbery)". Several people who appear to be attendants can also be seen.

This part features the "Ryuuko Tsukurigi". The top of this wooden carving is made to look like a tiger, and the bottom is shaped like a dragon. The carving can be viewed from outside of a hedge.

"A pine tree to the left side of a gate." The Ihei garden was divided into the part from the southern entrance to this gate and the part from this gate onward, with this latter portion being considered the main site of the garden's display.

This part, called the "Hairyou Chousenjin San" shows the relationship between Ihei's household and the shogunate family. This area is enclosed in a two-layered fence. Several elderly people who appear to be samurai are walking by with canes.

The sides of a slightly raised area of land are dug into, and thatched eaves can be seen. To the top left is written "muro (house)", indicating that Ihei's garden had some kind of greenhouses in it at that time.

It is even indicated in the "Kadan Jikinshou Roku" that "anagura (underground chambers)" and "dozou (warehouses)" were effective to protect plants that are weak to cold, so these structures show that Ihei's garden had a high level of horticultural techniques for the time.

The part called "Hanakusa Shinajina Hachiue" features a flowerpot painted in black, indicating that it is made of kawara (roof tile).

The part called "Iroiro Hachiue" features a flowerpot with a single horizontal line painted in white, indicating that it is made of a different material than the previous roof tile pot.

Considering this flowerpot has a horizontal line on it, it may be a handoukame (a flowerpot made out of a hibachi brazier). Either way, this shows that there were at least two types of flowerpots that were used in different ways at the time.

There is a building labeled "koshikake (bench)" that is thought to be a resting place, and three people can be seen eating and drinking nearby. The person in the center is the main focus, and the other two are attendants.

There is writing next to a pond. When the shogunate family visited here in the third month of Kyouhou period 12 (1727), the spot where they sat was thereafter known as a popular place to rest.