Kairakuen

Kairakuen stands on a terrace above Lake Senba on the western side of central Mito. Tokugawa Nariaki, the ninth lord of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa family, conceived it after touring his domain in 1833 and opened it in 1842. Its name, 'garden to be enjoyed together', comes from a passage in Mencius: unlike the private gardens of other daimyo, it was opened to the townspeople on fixed days each month.

Nariaki planted plum trees for both beauty and practicality — the blossoms herald spring, and the pickled fruit (umeboshi) was a provision in times of famine and war. Today the main garden holds about 3,000 trees of around 100 varieties, from early-blooming white to deep red and weeping forms. The garden is designed as a sequence of contrasts: visitors entering through the traditional main gate first pass through a dark grove of cedar and Mōsō bamboo (the yin) before emerging into the bright, open plum groves (the yang).

Kairakuen was built as a pair with the Kōdōkan, the domain school Nariaki founded in 1841 in the castle grounds: the school was for study, the garden for rest and recreation. Together they are part of a Japan Heritage story on education in early modern Japan. The garden is now part of a much larger park that extends around the lake.

Nariaki was one of the most influential daimyo of the late Edo period, a promoter of the Mito school of learning and of coastal defence. He sited the garden on the hill of Shichimenzan, overlooking Lake Senba, and designed its buildings himself, including the villa of Kōbuntei.

After the Meiji Restoration the garden became a public park, named Tokiwa Park, and it was designated a Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty under that name in 1922. The Kōbuntei was destroyed in the air raids of 1945 and rebuilt after the war. The park has since been expanded around Lake Senba.

The Mito Plum Festival, held from mid- or late February to late March, has taken place for more than a century and is one of the best-known plum blossom events in Japan, with tea ceremonies, evening illuminations and the selection of 'plum ambassadors' for the city. Plum viewing (ume-mi) was the main flower-viewing tradition before cherry blossom took its place, and Kairakuen preserves it on a grand scale.

The garden also expresses the ideals of the Mito school: benevolent rule, learning and self-cultivation balanced by recreation. Its opening to the public in the Edo period is often cited as an early example of a park for common people in Japan.