
Rikugien Gardens
Edo-period strolling garden with eighty-eight miniature scenes recreating classical waka poems.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Rikugien Gardens in Tokyo follows Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a low-ranking samurai who rose to become one of the most powerful men in Japan, and the garden he built in 1695 as a physical map of eighty-eight classical waka poems. It traces what happened after his death, when the design fell into decades of neglect, and how Mitsubishi founder Iwasaki Yataro bought the ruined estate in 1878 to save it. Stand by the pond, Osawa-no-ike, and look toward Fujishiro hill.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens
Edo-period strolling garden of ponds, hills and a stone bridge shaped by a Ming loyalist exile.
Hamarikyu Gardens
Tidal seaside garden of a former shogun's villa, its pond rising and falling with the ocean's tide.
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Sprawling Meiji-era garden blending Japanese, French and English styles around a tranquil pond.
Kyū-Iwasaki-tei Gardens
Meiji-era mansion in English Jacobean style, linked by a secret tunnel to a Swiss-chalet billiard house.
Nezu Museum
Serene art museum of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian works set in a sprawling landscaped garden.
Imperial Palace East National Gardens
Landscaped former castle grounds where a shogun's fire-ravaged keep base still stands, never rebuilt.