Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens
In my last blog post, we visited the Heirinji Temple to view the autumn colors. Another popular spot is the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens, right beside the Tokyo Dome.
The construction of this garden was started in 1629 by Tokugawa Yorifusa, the daimyo (feudal lord) of Mito han, then completed by his successor, Tokugawa Mitsukuni.
The gardens are named after “Kōraku-en” (Kōraku means “enjoying afterwards”) from a Chinese teaching of “a governor should worry before people and enjoy after people”. The garden shows strong Chinese influence in its design.
The inner garden had two stone bridges and a pond that offered reflections of nearby buildings.
As the water of this well had never dried or flooded, it is called Furo-no-mizu or the Water of Youth.
This bridge is called Engetsu-kyo (Stone Bridge) or full moon bridge because a full moon is formed by joining the figure of this bridge to its reflection on the water – unfortunately there were lots of fallen leaves, so no reflection was visible.
A small waterfall called Shiraito-no-taki.
This vermillion colored bridge is quite prominent amid its surroundings.
This thatched roofed building is called Kuhachiya.
A puppet master performed an entertaining show on the garden grounds.
Konnichiwa 
Was it your first time to this Japanese garden?
I’ve been there a number of times…I have photos (including the “Fountain Of Youth” and the reflection of the stone bridge) here:
http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/photos/#dome
It was my first to visit this garden. Thanks for posting the link, nice picture of the stone bridge with its reflection.
Beautiful gardens. I love that stone bridge. So classic.
Yes, I like the stone bridge as well. It was blocked off so you couldn’t walk through it though.
Beautiful colours there this time of year. I’ve been there twice before, most recently last year. But both times were in spring.
Both times, I tried finding the subway station to leave the area, and just couldn’t find it. It’s a confusing area around Tokyo Dome.
It was my first time to visit the gardens. Did you see cherry blossoms?
I was there too late to see the cherry blossoms. I went around Golden Week the first time, then later in late May or early June. I did get to see a lot of photographers taking pictures of a rare bird, though. Very small bird on the island in the main pond.
Those are gorgeous photos.
I was just in the area Saturday afternoon, after work, but at that point it was too dark to justify visiting the park. I was a little surprised to see that it’s so close to my office in Akihabara. It would have been worth going to back a couple months ago when the sun was out longer. But now I’ll know where it is when the next hanami rolls around.
Actually, the reason I was in the area was to go to the Toppan building in Iidabashi to visit the Printing Museum. Interesting place, if you like old Japanese books and advertising posters.
Thanks, glad you liked the pictures. I didn’t know that Akihabara was close to Tokyo Dome – I guess it is hard to tell distances when you take the underground subway all the time.
Yes, the Tokyo Dome, Budokan, Yasukuni Shrine, Akihabara, and Ueno are all walkable distance from one another.
Do you take the subways usually?
As for me, I almost never use the subways. I almost always use the JR trains lines.
Subways for me, not JR train lines as much. No JR station near our place, but several subway stations are (both Metro and Toei).
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