is a

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

located in the city of

Tsuyama is a city in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. In February 2023, the city had an estimated population of 97,507 in 45,653 households and a population density of 190 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Tsuyama is located in nort ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

, Japan. Shūraku-en was built in 1658 by Mori Nagatsugu, ''

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 ...

'' of

Tsuyama Domain 270px, Matsudaira Naritami, 8th daimyo of Tsuyama 270px, Kakuzankan, han school was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now northern Okayama Prefecture. It controlled most of Mimasaka Province and wa ...

History

Mori Nagatsugu invited gardeners of the

Kobori Enshū was a Japanese aristocrat, garden designer, painter, poet, and tea master during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Biography His personal name was Masakazu (政一). In 1604, he received as inheritance a 12,000-''koku'' fief in Ōmi Province at K ...

school from

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

to create a ''daimyō'' garden with a walking path around a pond, based on the gardens of the Sento Imperial Palace of the

Kyoto Imperial Palace The is the former palace of the Emperor of Japan, located in Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1869, the Emperors have resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, while the preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace was ordered ...

. Construction work was from 1655 to 1658, and the resultant garden covered (256 meters from east-to-west by 292 meters form north-to-south), or approximately three times the size of the surviving portion of the garden today. Under the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

, who succeeded the Mori clan as rulers of Tsuyama, the garden was used as the ''Gotaimenjo'' (御対面所) for audiences or diplomacy. None of the buildings from 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 ...

remain. The garden was given the name "Shūraku-en" in 1870. Most of the garden is occupied by a long pond in the north-south direction, with four islands. With the Chugoku Mountains to the north as

borrowed scenery Borrowed scenery (; Japanese language, Japanese: ; Chinese language, Chinese: ) is the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden" found in traditional East Asian garden design. The term borrowing of scenery ...

, the pond in the north is placed so as to be approached by artificial hills in the east and north, and a 210-meter-long winding stream flows on the east side. There are few artificial structures such as ''tōrō'' lanterns, as the characteristic of the garden is that it is integrated with nature. The present buildings along the shore of the pond are all reconstructions. Shūraku-en was designated a by the national government in 2002. It is open to the public free as a citizen's park. However, it is closed at night.

Gallery

Shurakuen Tsuyama02n4272.jpg, Southern aspect of the pond Shurakuen Tsuyama13n4272.jpg, Naka-no-shima Shurakuen Tsuyama10n4272.jpg, Yohokaku and Geihinkan pavilions Shurakuen Tsuyama19n4272.jpg, the stream

References

External links

Tsuyama City official web site - Shūraku-en

Thuyama Kawara Ban - Shūraku-en
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shuraku-En Gardens in Japan Tsuyama Gardens in Okayama Prefecture Tourist attractions in Okayama Prefecture Places of Scenic Beauty

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links