Hakone Park Audio Guide

Onshi Hakone Park: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Onshi Hakone Park

   Welcome to Onshi Hakone Park, known in Japanese as 恩賜箱根公園, a prefectural park in the town of Hakone, in Kanagawa Prefecture. It sits on Togashima, a peninsula that juts out into Lake Ashinoko, and that setting is the whole point of the place. Water spreads on several sides, forested mountains rise behind it, and on a clear day Mount Fuji joins the scene. This guide tells the story of the park as a whole: how an imperial summer retreat became a public landscape, and what makes the peninsula so special. I will not describe individual gardens, paths or buildings in detail. Those are yours to discover as you wander. The name itself is a clue. Onshi means something like royally given, and by the end of this guide you will know exactly what was given, by whom, and when.

2. 02

   A Summer Palace for Emperors and Guests at Onshi Hakone Park

   Until 1884, this peninsula was covered in dense bamboo forest. Then a German physician named Erwin Bälz, who had been hired by the Japanese government to teach medicine at Tokyo University, looked at Hakone and recognized its potential as a summer retreat. Bälz lived from 1849 to 1913, and his judgment helped put this corner of Hakone on the map. The Imperial Household Ministry chose Togashima as the site for a vacation palace. It was meant to serve as a summer resort for members of the imperial family and for foreign guests. The ministry purchased 163,000 square meters of land, and the palace was constructed in 1886, with July 19 of that year recorded as the date. Picture the world of that moment. Japan was opening to the wider world, and a lakeside retreat in cool mountain air was a graceful place to receive visitors. The setting did much of the work: water, forest and a view of Mount Fuji.

3. 03

   A Peninsula in the Lake: The Landscape of Onshi Hakone Park

   The geography here is the real star. Togashima pushes out into Lake Ashinoko, so the lake, the surrounding mountains and Mount Fuji all frame the park at once. In every season, visitors are struck by the grace of the landscape and the richness of the nature around them. The park is part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, and it is one of the popular places for a recreational outing there. As you explore the meandering paths, you are following an invitation the park itself makes: to discover for yourself why Hakone is renowned throughout Japan. Try noticing how the view changes as the paths curve. A peninsula gives you water on several sides, and each turn can offer a different arrangement of lake, ridgeline and sky.

4. 04

   From Imperial Retreat to Public Park at Onshi Hakone Park

   For its first decades, this was a villa and summer retreat for the Emperor and Empress, established in 1886. In 1946 the grounds were given to the public and became a prefectural park. That act of giving is what the name Onshi records: a royal gift to the people. It is a quiet but remarkable change. A landscape chosen to host imperial family members and foreign guests now welcomes anyone who wants a walk by the lake. Today the park is managed under Kanagawa Prefecture. The lake itself has a much older story. Around Lake Ashinoko, legend tells of a nine-headed dragon that lived at the bottom of the water, and of the priest Mangan, who is credited with pacifying it. That tale belongs to the shrine on the shore, not to this park, but it shows how long people have found meaning in this lake.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Onshi Hakone Park

   You have now seen the outline of Onshi Hakone Park: bamboo forest becoming an imperial retreat, a retreat becoming a public gift, and a peninsula that keeps the lake and Mount Fuji in view. As you continue, look for the places where the trees open and the lake appears. Ask yourself what a visitor in the 1880s would have seen from the same spot. The meandering paths and gardens hold plenty of details no guide can anticipate, so let your curiosity choose the next turn.