or Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a large public garden in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

and

Shibuya is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station. As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,60 ...

, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally a residence of the Naitō family in 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 ...

. It later became a garden under the management of Japan

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

. It is now a national garden under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Environment.

History

The ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

bequeathed land in this area to a Naitō ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' (feudal lord) in 1590 for his residence in Edo. The Naitō family completed a garden here in 1772.Mansfield, p. 15. In 1872, following the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the house and its grounds were converted into an experimental agricultural centre, the Naito Shinjuku Experimental Station. It became the Shinjuku Imperial Botanical Garden in 1879. In 1901, head of the garden asked landscape architect of the École nationale supérieure d'horticulture in Versailles to remodel the botanical garden into a landscape garden, and Shinjuku Imperial Garden (''Shinjuku Gyoen''), with its present layout, was opened in May 1906 with the

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

in attendance. Most of the garden was burnt and greatly damaged by air raids in 1945, in the later stages of World War II, except for the Taiwan Pavilion. After the war, jurisdiction over the garden, plus the

Tokyo Imperial Palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor h ...

Outer Garden and the Kyoto Imperial Garden, was transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now the

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare The is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as in Japan. The ministry provides services on health, labour and welfare. It was formed with the merger of the former Ministry of Health and Welfare or and th ...

), and the garden was rebuilt. It reopened to the public on 21 May 1949 as Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Jurisdiction was transferred to the Environment Agency when it formed in 1971, then to the Ministry of the Environment when it succeeded the agency in 2001, where it remains. The 1989 state funeral rites of emperor Hirohito were held in the garden, before he was taken for burial at the

Musashi Imperial Graveyard is a mausoleum complex of the Japanese Emperors in Nagabusa-machi, Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. Located within a forest in the western suburbs of Tokyo and named for the ancient Musashi Province, the site contains the mausolea of Emperor Taishō ...

Features

The garden, which is 58.3 hectares in area with a circumference of 3.5 km, blends three distinct styles: a French Formal and English Landscape in the north and a Japanese traditional garden in the south. A traditional Japanese tea house is in the gardens. The garden is a favourite ''

hanami is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; in this case almost always mean those of the or, less frequently, trees. From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan, and around the s ...

'' ( cherry-blossom viewing) spot, and large crowds can be present during cherry blossom season. The garden has more than 20,000 trees, including approximately 1,500

cherry tree A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

s, which bloom from late March (''Shidare'' or Weeping Cherry) to early April (''Somei'' or Tokyo Cherry), and on to late April ( ''Kanzan'' Cherry). Other trees include majestic Himalayan cedars, which soar above the rest of the trees in the garden, tulip trees, cypresses, and plane trees, which were first planted in Japan in the Imperial Gardens. Horticulture work has been done in the garden greenhouses since 1892. The present greenhouse, built in the 1950s, has over 1,700 tropical and subtropical plant species on permanent display.

Access

The garden has three access gates: Shinjuku Gate, Okido Gate, and

Sendagaya is an area within Shibuya ward, one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo. Introduction Sendagaya is nestled in an urban green area in Shibuya ward between Shinjuku ward and Shinjuku Gyo-en (Shinjuku Imperial Gardens) to the north (an area in Send ...

Gate. Shinjuku Gyoen is open from 9:00 until 17:30 (mid-March until end of September; October–mid-March: until 16:00; July–late August: 18:30). On Mondays the garden is closed, except during the cherry blossom and

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...

seasons: late March–late April, and first half of November respectively, when the garden is open seven days a week. If Monday is a public holiday, then closed the following day. During cherry blossom, prior reservations are required for several dates. The greenhouse is open from 9:30 until 17:00 (mid-March until end of September; October–mid-March: until 15:30; July–late August: 18:00). The garden is a short walk from Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station on the

Marunouchi Line The is a Rapid transit, subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metro. The line runs in a U-shape between Ogikubo Station in Suginami, Tokyo, Suginami and Ikebukuro Station in Toshima, Tokyo, Toshima, with a branch line between Nakano-Sa ...

and from Sendagaya Station on the

Chūō-Sōbu Line The is a railway line that runs through Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) network, the line operates on separate tracks along the right-of-way of the Chūō Main Line ( Chūō Line (Rapid)) and ...

. It is on the

Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line The , formally the , is a subway line operated by Tokyo Metro in west-central Tokyo and Wako, Saitama, Japan. The newest line in the Tokyo subway network, it opened in stages between 1994 and 2008. On average, the Fukutoshin Line carried 362,654 ...

near Shinjuku-sanchōme Station. It is a four-minute walk from exit C1 of that station.

In popular culture

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...

's '' The Sound of the Mountain'', Shingo declares, "You can stretch out. It's like getting out of Japan - I wouldn't have dreamed that there was a place like this right in the middle of Tokyo." It is the setting of the 2013

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

'' The Garden of Words''.

Gallery

File:Shinjuku gyoen sunny autumn day.jpg, Shinjuku Gyo-en Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - sakura 2.JPG, Cherry blossom in Shinjuku Gyo-en Shinjuku Gyoen 2010.11.10.JPG, Chrysanthemum flower exhibition, 2010 Shinjuku Gyoen - 2023 2023 March 3.webm, A few scenes inside the garden in early spring 2023 Wooden_footbridge_in_Shinjuku_Gyoen_National_Garden,_Tokyo,_Japan,_a_sunny_day_with_blue_sky.jpg, Wooden footbridge in Shinjuku Gyo-en Shinjuku Gyoen autumn season.jpg, Shinjuku Gyo-en in fall

References

Bibliography

External links

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden official website (English)
{{Authority control Gardens in Tokyo Hanami spots of Japan Parks and gardens in Tokyo Shibuya Shinjuku