Walk seventeen buildings moved here from Kyoto, Kamakura and Gifu
A garden assembled from relocated buildings
A landscape garden created by the silk merchant Hara Tomitaro (Sankei) and opened to the public in 1906. Almost every building in it was bought in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kamakura, Gifu or Wakayama and moved here, among them a three-storey pagoda built in 1457 and relocated in 1914, and Rinshunkaku, the summer residence of Tokugawa Yorinobu, rebuilt here in 1915 to 1917.
Why it's unique
The claim is not that it is a beautiful garden. It is a privately assembled collection of relocated national-grade architecture: ten Important Cultural Properties and three more city-designated Tangible Cultural Properties, gathered by one man onto one site.
No other garden in the country was built this way. The Tomyoji pagoda is the oldest pagoda in the Kanto region with Important Cultural Property status, and Rinshunkaku is routinely compared to the Katsura Imperial Villa.
Before you go
What residents come for is the windows. The inner walking paths open only twice a year, roughly 11 April to 10 May for new green and 20 November to 13 December for autumn colour. Evening openings are separate again: a cherry-blossom light-up around 27 March to 5 April, and the Kangetsu-kai moon viewing on 25 to 29 September. The early-morning lotus viewing opens the gate at 07:00, about 25 July to 9 August.
Special building openings are free with normal admission, but you view from the engawa only and cannot go into the rooms, which is the thing people are disappointed by. Free guided tours run in Japanese and English. The Tomyoji pagoda goes into major restoration from April 2027, so the window to see it unscaffolded is closing.