Koishikawa-Kōrakuen Garden

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden is a unique Japanese garden located in the Koishikawa Historic District. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that this garden has preserved the design of the Chinese garden and all the elements of the Edo period. It has also been designated a special place for admiring the beauty of Japan and is considered a historical site that is included in the list of protected cultural heritage sites.

The design of Koishikawa Korakuen Park reflects a strong Chinese influence, many of its design ideas were new to Japan at that time and were subsequently reproduced many times in other gardens. In particular, the principle of recreating famous landscapes in miniature was used for the first time.

Many gardens in Japan are called "Korakuen", which means "garden of pleasure". In 1629, a huge territory was given into the possession of a side branch of the Tokugawa Shogun family, who ruled the province of Mito. Its founder Tokugawa Yerifusa invited the master Tokudaiji Sae, and by 1634 the first stage of work was completed.

The abundance of water made it possible to create a huge pond and many small ponds, streams and waterfalls, delighting the eye and ear and giving a special scenic beauty to this park, many elements of which were new to Japan and then repeatedly reproduced in other gardens. The principle of recreating famous landscapes in miniature became widely used here, and therefore a walk through the park turned into a kind of trip to the most beautiful places in Japan and China: you could see the famous Fuji, the famous Kiyomizuder Temple in Kyoto, the Western Lake in China, repeatedly praised by poets, in the middle of which the island of Horai, planted with pine trees, was recreated. The garden owes some of its ideas to the Chinese Confucian scholar Xiu Shunsui, who in 1665 was invited to his service by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the second of the line of rulers of Mito. Xiu Shunsui, in addition to his academic studies, turned out to be an expert in horticultural art, to which he owed much of his origin from the city of Suzhou, famous to this day for its gardens.

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden is completely transformed during the flowering of the trees. In March, umematsuri is even held here, a national holiday that was born as a celebration of the annual beauty of the plum blossom. At the end of May, it's the turn of sakura and azaleas. And autumn dresses the park in the bloody colors of momiji. In short, whenever you come to Koishikawa Korakuen Garden, it will delight you with the beauty and tranquility of nature in a big city.