Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden Audio Guide

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

   Welcome to Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden, known in Japanese as 旧芝離宮恩賜庭園. It sits in the Kaigan district of Minato ward in Tokyo, just a short walk from the towers and train lines of Hamamatsucho. Step through the gate and the city softens. In front of you is a garden of the early Edo period, built around a pond and designed to be walked slowly. This is one of only four surviving Edo-period clan gardens in Tokyo. The other three are Koishikawa Korakuen, Rikugien and Hama Rikyu. It is also a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty. In the next few minutes I will tell you who made it, what it was modeled on, and why a tide-fed pond sits so close to the heart of the capital. Keep your pace slow today. This garden rewards patience.

2. 02

   Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden: A Lord's Garden Takes Shape

   Let's go back to the early Edo period. This garden began as the private garden of a feudal lord, in the grounds of the Okubo family's residence in Edo. The Okubo family ruled Odawara. The garden's earliest name was Rakujuen, which means roughly the garden of long life and joy. The exact date is told in more than one way. One account says the land became the Okubo estate in 1678. Another estimate places the building of the garden between 1678 and 1686. A rare document called Rakujuen, found by the garden scholar Tatsui Matsunosuke, shows that the garden already existed in the Jokyo years, between 1684 and 1688. Tradition adds that the senior councilor of the Okubo family had gardeners brought from Odawara to lay it out during the Genroku years, between 1688 and 1704. What survives is a type of garden called a strolling pond garden. A great pond sits at the center, and paths lead you around it so the view changes at every turn. It has no towering stone arrangements to overwhelm you. Instead, the care went into the layout of the land itself, and that is what makes it one of the great gardens of Edo.

3. 03

   Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden: Stones, Seawater and a Chinese Lake

   Now look at the water, because this pond has a secret. Today the great pond is fresh water. In the old days, it was a tidal pond that drew in seawater, so its level rose and fell with the sea. The garden once stood at the edge of the bay, and the pond remembers that. Then look at the stones, because they tell a story of home. Many were carried from Odawara, the Okubo family's own domain. These are Nebukawa stones, and they are used in several of the rock arrangements and in the stepping stones around the pond. The stonework of Mount Nebukawa and of the central island is especially worth a long look. The edge of the pond is faced with black stone from Fuji. There is also a borrowed landscape from far away. The stone embankment here is modeled on the causeway of West Lake in Hangzhou, in China. A lord of Edo chose to put a famous Chinese scene into his own garden, and you can walk along its echo today.

4. 04

   Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden: From Clan Estate to Imperial Gift

   The garden changed hands many times. After several owners, the estate became the Shiba residence of the Kii Tokugawa family around the end of the Edo period. In 1875 it passed to the Imperial Household Ministry, and in 1876 it became a detached palace, the Shiba Rikyu. That is where the name comes from. Rikyu means detached palace, and Kyu means former. The next chapter began in 1924. In January of that year the garden was given to Tokyo City to mark the marriage of the future Showa Emperor. The ground was restored and put in order. On April 20, 1924, it opened to the public. First it was called Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden, and by the end of the year it had taken the name Kyu Shiba Rikyu Onshi Garden. Onshi means an imperial gift. The garden is now a Tokyo metropolitan garden, protected as a cultural property for its artistic and scenic value. A place once reserved for a lord, then for the imperial household, is now open to anyone who walks in.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

   Before you wander on, here are a few practical pointers. It is closed only at the turn of the year, from December 29 to January 1. If your timing works, free garden guide tours run on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and last about 45 minutes to an hour. They do not run in July and August, and weather can cancel them. For now, try a small game as you stroll. Find the stones that traveled from Odawara and trace the pond's edge to the black stone from Fuji. Then ask yourself where the old tide would have reached. See how the shape of the garden changes as you turn each corner, and notice how far the city seems to have drifted away.