Japanese gardens by region and city

Fujita Memorial Garden

Taishō-era landscape garden by the castle with a Western-style house and a borrowed view of Mount Iwaki.

Motsu-ji and its Pure Land garden

A pond garden representing the Pure Land, with a pebble beach and a stone-set promontory, and an original Heian-period stream (yarimizu); a Special Place of Scenic Beauty.

Oyakuen

Landscape garden of the Aizu lords with a pond, a villa and a medicinal herb garden; a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty.

Kairakuen

Hillside garden of about 3,000 plum trees in some 100 varieties, with a bamboo grove, cedar woods and views over Lake Senba.

Tsukuba Botanical Garden

Research garden of the National Museum of Nature and Science, arranged by Japanese vegetation zones.

Shikishima Park

Riverside park with pine woods and a rose garden, where Sakutaro's reconstructed house stands.

Omiya Park

Large park next to Hikawa Shrine with ponds and one of the prefecture's best-known cherry-blossom spots.

Hitsujiyama Park

Hillside park with fields of pink and white moss phlox (shibazakura) below Mount Buko in spring.

Naritasan Park

Wooded temple garden with ponds and waterfalls, especially colourful with plum blossom and autumn maples.

Shinjuku Gyoen

Former imperial garden combining French formal, English landscape and Japanese gardens; famous for cherry blossom.

Imperial Palace East Gardens

The former inner citadel of Edo Castle, with the massive keep foundation, guardhouses and a Japanese garden.

Hama-rikyu Gardens

Former shogunal garden on the bay with a tidal pond, duck-hunting blinds and a teahouse on an island.

Kiyosumi Garden

Stroll garden around a large pond with stepping stones and rare rocks gathered from across Japan by the Iwasaki family.

Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Gardens

One of Tokyo's oldest daimyo stroll gardens, next to Hamamatsucho Station.

Yoyogi Park

Large park of lawns and woods beside Meiji Jingu, busy with musicians, picnickers and weekend events.

Kyū-Yasuda Garden

Stroll garden around a pond, originally laid out for a daimyo residence beside the Kokugikan.

Mukōjima Hyakkaen

Flower garden founded in 1804 by a merchant for the literati of Edo, planted with seasonal flowers and plants from classical poetry.

Ueno Park

Hilltop park with museums, the Shinobazu Pond, Ueno Toshogu and one of Tokyo's most popular cherry-blossom avenues.

Sankeien

Garden created by the silk merchant Hara Sankei, with a three-storey pagoda and historic buildings from Kyoto and Kamakura.

Former Saitō Family Villa

Merchant's villa of 1918 with a landscape garden set against the coastal dunes.

Echigo Hillside Park

National government park in the hills, known for its rose garden.

Kenroku-en

Strolling garden of the Maeda lords, a Special Place of Scenic Beauty counted among Japan's three great gardens.

Yōkōkan Garden

Strolling pond garden of the Matsudaira lords' villa, a Place of Scenic Beauty.

Ōishi Park

Flower park on the northern shore of Lake Kawaguchi with lavender and kochia facing Fuji.

Atami Plum Garden

Garden of several hundred plum trees that bloom from January, among the earliest in Japan.

Jo-an and Uraku-en

Tea house built in 1618 by Oda Uraku, Nobunaga's younger brother, one of three National Treasure tea houses.

Genkyū-en

Stroll garden below the castle, modelled on a Chinese imperial garden, with a pond and teahouse view of the keep.

Ryōan-ji

Zen temple with the famous dry garden of fifteen stones on raked gravel.

Katsura Imperial Villa

17th-century princely villa and stroll garden, admired by modern architects such as Bruno Taut.

Ōkōchi Sansō

Hillside villa and garden of the film actor Ōkōchi Denjirō, with views over Kyoto.

Sorakuen Garden

Stroll garden with a relocated Edo-period daimyo's river-boat pavilion.

Kōko-en

Nine Edo-style walled gardens laid out on the site of samurai residences west of the castle.

Isui-en

Meiji-era stroll garden borrowing the gates of Tōdai-ji and Mount Wakakusa as scenery.

Chikurin-in

Temple lodging with the Gunpō-en garden, attributed in part to Sen no Rikyū.

Kōraku-en

A stroll garden of lawns, ponds and tea houses with borrowed views of the castle, one of Japan's three great gardens and a Special Place of Scenic Beauty.

Shukkei-en

The Asano lords' stroll garden of 1620, modelled in miniature on famous landscapes; a Place of Scenic Beauty.

Jōei-ji Sesshū Garden

A landscape garden of rocks and moss attributed to Sesshū; a National Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty.

Kikkō Park

The former residence area of the Kikkawa lords, with samurai houses, ponds and cherry trees.

Senshūkaku Garden

A Momoyama-style garden of massive blue schist stones from the castle's reception palace; a Place of Scenic Beauty.

Ritsurin Garden

A stroll garden of six ponds and thirteen artificial hills against Mount Shiun, a Special Place of Scenic Beauty.

Nakazu Banshōen

A stroll garden of the Kyōgoku lords laid out in 1688 near the mouth of the Doki River.

Makino Botanical Garden

A botanical garden on Mount Godai honouring Makino Tomitarō, with buildings by Naitō Hiroshi.

Ōhori Park

A large pond park laid out in the former castle moat, with islands linked by bridges and a Japanese garden.

Kōmyōzen-ji

A small Zen temple near Tenmangū with a moss-and-gravel garden, especially admired in autumn.

Kawachi Fujien

A private wisteria garden in the hills of Yawata, known for its tunnels of blossom in spring.

Shimeiso

Early twentieth-century house built over a spring-fed pond garden.

Suizenji Jōjuen

Hosokawa stroll garden around a spring-fed pond, with a miniature Mount Fuji and a teahouse.

Sengan-en

Shimazu villa garden of 1658 at Iso, using Sakurajima and Kinkō Bay as borrowed scenery; a national Place of Scenic Beauty.

Shikinaen

Royal villa garden with a pond, stone bridges and a Chinese-style pavilion, where Chinese envoys were received.