Rikugien Park 六義園 in Tokyo

Garden Lantern 六義園

            With vistas set up to reflect scenes from famous waka poetry, Rikugien park is considered a fine example of an Edo period garden. It was designed in 1702 by Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa, and contains over 6,000 trees surrounding a lake.

Japanese style garden / 日本庭園(にほんていえん)

There are islands, bridges, and tea houses which are hidden or revealed depending upon your angle. The park became the second residence of Yotaro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi who lived in the interesting home now called Kyu-Iwasaki-tei. The family donated Rikugien to the city of Tokyo, and it became a park in 1938.

Colored Lighting Rikugien Park六義園

            The name Rikugien comes from the method of dividing both traditional Chinese poetry and Japanese waka into 6 parts. For those curious about kanji characters, 六 adopts the Chinese pronunciation “riku” and not the Japanese “roku” in the name.

Rikugien Garden

Rikugien park is open from 9 am to 5 pm with a last admission at 4:30 pm. The entrance fee is 300 yen. Seniors over 65 are 150 yen and primary school age children and younger can enter for free. Rikugien is about a 7 minute walk from Komakome Station, which serves the Tokyo Metro Namboku line and the JR Yamanote line.

For more information : http://teien.tokyo-park.or.jp/en/rikugien/index.html

photos by: mrhayata & TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋), mrhayata, Kabacchi