Gyokusen-en Nishida Family Garden

This guide to Gyokusen-en Nishida Family Garden in Kanazawa follows Madame Nishida through a tea ceremony in the Saisetsu-tei pavilion before handing the bowl and the whisk to you. It traces the garden back to Wakita Naokata, born in Korea around 1585 and raised in Japan, and to the pine by the water he is said to have grown from a Korean seed, one piece of home he could keep. You'll hear how four generations of his descendants kept shaping the terraced pond afterward. Best experienced kneeling on the same tatami where the ceremony has been taught for generations.