Korakuen

Kōraku-en lies on a long island in the Asahi River directly opposite Okayama Castle, whose black keep rises above the trees as part of the garden's scenery. It was created as a place of leisure and hospitality for the lords of the Okayama domain, and together with Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and Kairaku-en in Mito it is traditionally counted among the three great gardens of Japan.

Unlike the enclosed temple gardens of Kyoto, Kōraku-en is an open, bright landscape designed to be walked. Broad lawns, unusual in a Japanese garden of its age, are threaded by winding streams and paths that lead to the central Sawa-no-ike pond, the artificial hill Yuishin-zan and a series of pavilions. Tea bushes, a small rice field and a plum and cherry grove recall the productive side of a daimyo estate.

The garden has kept its Edo-period layout largely intact, documented in paintings and plans from the lords' era. Red-crowned cranes, once kept by the Ikeda, have been bred here again since the 1950s.

Ikeda Tsunamasa ordered the garden in 1687, and his retainer Tsuda Nagatada oversaw the work until its completion in 1700. It was originally called Okōen, the garden behind the castle; the name Kōraku-en, from a classical Chinese maxim that a ruler should worry before the people and enjoy himself after them, was adopted in 1871. The Okayama Prefecture acquired the garden in 1884 and opened it to the public. It suffered flood damage in 1934 and air raids in 1945, and was restored on the basis of historical records.

Kōraku-en shows the daimyo garden as a stage for politics and pleasure: lords received guests, held tea gatherings and Noh performances, and displayed their taste to other domains. The Noh stage in the garden is still used for performances.

Seasonal events include the tea-picking in May and evening illuminations in summer and autumn, and the garden is a popular spot for plum blossom in February and March and for cherry blossom in early April.