Ritsurin Garden, Kagawa | Japan is Nippon

A lord's garden built over 100+ years for the Matsudaira of Takamatsu: six ponds and 13 hills below Mount Shiun, with a new view at every step.

A pond with a small arched bridge below the wooded slopes of Mount Shiun at Ritsurin Garden — Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

A boatman poling a traditional wooden boat past the teahouse on Ritsurin Garden's South Pond — Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

A lord's garden more than 100 years in the making

Ritsurin Garden (Ritsurin Koen) in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, is a stroll-style daimyo garden. A stroll garden is a Japanese garden you enjoy by walking the paths around its ponds as the scenery shifts, and a daimyo garden is one built for a feudal lord (daimyo) in the Edo period.

Its origins are traced to around 1631, in the time of Nishijima Hachibei, a retainer of the Ikoma family who then ruled Sanuki (today's Kagawa). The Matsudaira family, who later became lords of Takamatsu, kept adding to it, and it was completed in 1745 under the fifth lord, Matsudaira Yoritaka. It opened to the public as a prefectural park in 1875, and in 1953 it was designated a Special Place of Scenic Beauty (a cultural property the national government names for gardens and landscapes of particularly high value).

Six ponds, 13 hills and 1,000 pines

With Mount Shiun as its backdrop, the garden covers about 75 hectares including the mountain. It is laid out with six ponds and 13 tsukiyama (small man-made hills of heaped earth), and as the saying ippo ikkei ("one step, one view") puts it, the scene changes with every step you take.

There are about 1,400 pine trees, of which around 1,000 are teire-matsu, pines shaped by craftsmen. Some have names, such as the Hako-matsu, clipped into square box shapes; the Tsurukame-matsu, arranged to evoke a crane and a turtle; and the Neagari Goyomatsu, a five-needle pine said to have been a gift from the Tokugawa shogun's family in 1833.

The Michelin travel guide gives it three stars, meaning it is worth a special journey.

Enjoy the garden from a tea house and a boat

The garden's main tea house is Kikugetsu-tei. You can sit on the tatami, gaze out at the pond and have a bowl of matcha (for a fee).

On the South Lake (Nanko) you can also take a trip round the pond in a traditional wooden boat. There is an iris garden planted with about 3,700 Japanese irises, cherry blossom in spring and autumn leaves in autumn, and in spring and autumn the garden is lit up at night. Look out too for Engetsu-kyo, a particularly graceful bridge.

Getting there

The garden is about 2km from JR Takamatsu Station. From Ritsurin Koen Kitaguchi Station on the JR Kotoku Line it is about 3 to 5 minutes' walk to the North Gate, and from Ritsurin Koen Station on the Kotoden (Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railroad) it is about 10 minutes' walk. Buses also run from the bus terminal at JR Takamatsu Station to the "Ritsurin Koen-mae" stop.

There are two entrances, the East Gate and the North Gate. Opening hours and prices change with the seasons, so check the official website.

Tips

Early in the morning there are fewer people, and you may even find a quiet scene with mist over the ponds.
Wild boar have been sighted in the garden and work is under way to catch them. If you see one, do not go near it.
There are seasonal events such as autumn illuminations and takigi-noh (Noh theatre performed at night by the light of bonfires). Check the official website for dates.