Planning a Trip to Japan: A Guide for Garden Enthusiast Planning a trip to Japan is an exciting journey, especially if you’re passionate about gardens. Here’s a comprehensive Japan garden travel guide to help you design the perfect itinerary, focusing on the best seasons, destinations, and accommodations for your garden-themed...Continue Reading
The way how ponds were built in Japan changed massively over time. In this article I want to introduce the ancient way and the more recent methods. Let’s begin when rich people wanted to build private gardens in the outskirts of Kyoto in as early as the Heian period (794-1185)....Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Other Regions > Kōraku-en Kōraku-en（後楽園） The Kōraku-en gardens are a large strolling garden with a meandering stream and belong to the Three Great Gardens in Japan. They have been built in 1700 (Edo period) by the lord of the Okayama area, Ikeda...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Shūgaku-in Rikyū Shūgaku-in Rikyū（修学院離宮） Shūgaku-in Rikyū is an exception among Kyoto’s imperial gardens. There is not only one garden on its grounds, but three separate gardens. The gardens are connected by gravel paths, which lead through vegetable patches and...Continue Reading
A lot of words connected to pine pruning we want to explore today! While midoritsumi みどり摘み and momiage 揉み上げ are already well known when it comes to pine pruning, there is still so much more to explore, even beyond the terms I will explain today. All techniques and examples I am showing,...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Kyoto Area > Shisen-dō Shisen-dō（詩仙堂） Shisen-dō is is a temple of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. It was built in the early Edo period (1641) as a retirement villa for Ishikawa Jōzan. Ishikawa Jōzan was a poet and calligrapher. Feel free...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Tokyo Area > Shinjuku Gyoen Shinjuku Gyoen（新宿御苑） Surprisingly, Shinjuku Gyoen has one of the most beautiful Japanese gardens in Tokyo. It is a vast park and has different garden sections: a Japanese garden with two ponds connected by a small river, a...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Other Regions > Sankei-en Sankei-en（三溪園） This beautiful landscape garden in Yokohama is one of Japan’s youngest gardens. Construction works began in 1902 and it was opened to the public in 1906. The founder of the garden, Sankei Hara, a silk trader from...Continue Reading
Water is one of the three important elements in the Japanese garden. Today we want to explore how water is integrated into the garden design in form of ponds. Ponds in the Japanese garden differ, depending on the type of the garden, in size and shape. History of ponds in...Continue Reading
Top > Gardens Overview > Famous Gardens > Tokyo Area > Kyū-Shiba-Rikyū Teien Kyū-Shiba-Rikyū Teien（旧芝離宮庭園） The Kyū-Shibarikyū garden is a former imperial garden in southern Tokyo. It is a typical pond strolling garden (回遊式泉水庭園) from the Edo period. The land it is built on was reclaimed from the Tokyo bay...Continue Reading
