is a public park surrounding

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

Kita-ku, Nagoya is one of the 16 Wards of Japan, wards of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2019, the ward had an estimated population of 163,555 and a population density of 9,330 persons per km2. The total area was 17.53 km2. ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

History

The name Meijō derives itself from the abbreviated ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' form of . So in effect the park's name translated means "Nagoya Castle Park", since it lies to the north of the castle and used to be a part of its wider compound. The park is located on the site of the former ''Shimo Ofuke-oniwa'' (下御深井御庭), also known as ''Ofuke-niwa'' (御深井庭), of the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. The Ofuke Garden was a large garden centering on a pond that was left over from the low marshland that existed on the north side of the castle when Nagoya Castle was built, and served as a defense for the north side of the castle. The pond had a number of small islands and the area was cultivated as a Japanese garden. It is said that the third ''shōgun''

Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who acted as his political adviser and was at the ...

admired this garden when he visited and used it as a model for the Fukiage part of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

. The area was used a secret garden. In 1820 at least three different tea houses were located around the pond. One was the Takenaga tea house (竹長押御茶屋) located to the south close to Benten Island, the Seto tea house (瀬戸御茶屋) next to the Seto Mount to the east, and the Matsuyama tea house (松山御茶屋) to the north. Located west of the Ofuke Garden was lord Tokugawa Naritomo's ''Shin Goten'' (新御殿 New Palace) in what is today Horibata-chō (堀端町). The area was originally larger, incorporating land to the east of today's park across Otsu-dori where Aichi Gakuin University - Meijo Koen Campus is located. During the Kan'ei era (1624-44), the first lord of Owari,

Tokugawa Yoshinao was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Biography Born the ninth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu with his concubine, Okame no Kata. His childhood name was Gorōtamaru (五郎太丸). While still a young child, he was appointed leader ...

(1600-50) had a ''

noborigama The ''anagama'' kiln (Japanese Kanji: 穴窯/ Hiragana: あながま) is an ancient type of pottery kiln brought to Japan from China via Korea in the 5th century. It is a version of the climbing dragon kiln of south China, whose further deve ...

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

constructed at the eastern corner of the Ofuke garden and invited potters from Seto. Pottery was made at the kiln until the Meiji era. After the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

, the land was reclaimed and used as a military drill ground. The area was converted into a public park in 1931.

Facilities

The park includes Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium and Nagoya City Archives, as well as other facilities. Periodically, flower exhibits are held in this park. In addition, the park itself has many flowers being cultivated inside, including famously its

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae). The genus includes four species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and nor ...

, which usually bloom at the end of April and beginning of May, and especially its

cherry blossom The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

s, which usually bloom at the beginning of April.

Access

Meijō Kōen Station provide access to the park. Meijō Kōen Station is named after this park, and the subway line it is on, namely the

Meijō Line The is a subway line in Nagoya, Japan, part of the Nagoya Municipal Subway system. It is a loop line that runs from Kanayama, via Sakae, Ōzone, Nagoya Daigaku, and back to Kanayama, all within Nagoya. The Meijō Line's color on maps is ...

, is named after Nagoya Castle.

References

External links

Information from the Nagoya Convention and Visitor's Bureau
Parks and gardens in Nagoya Nagoya Castle {{Aichi-geo-stub

History

Facilities

Access

See also

References

External links