This small stone building over the pond in the northern half of the Ritsurin Garden used to be a place to watch ducks during the Edo Period, and probably hunt them too.
And actually that makes me wonder. If Japanese people used to eat ducks a few Centuries ago, why don’t they do it anymore?
I have to admit, that this was my biggest (and only?) culinary disappointment when I moved to Japan, the fact that Japanese people don’t eat duck (it is probably my favorite meat, not a surprise providing I come from the French South-West).