is a public park surrounding

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

Kita-ku, Nagoya is one of the 16 wards of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2019, the ward had an estimated population of 163,555 and a population density of 9,330 persons per km². The total area was 17.53 km². Geography Kita ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

The name Meijō derives itself from the abbreviated ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' form of . So in effect the park's name translated means "Nagoya Castle Park", since it lies to the north of the castle and used to be a part of its wider compound. The park is located on the site of the former ''Ofuke-niwa'' (御深井庭) or ''Ofuke-oniwa'' (御深井御庭) of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. The Ofuke Garden was a large garden centering on a pond that was left over from the low marshland that existed on the north side of the castle when Nagoya Castle was built, and served as a defense for the north side of the castle. The pond had a number of small islands and the area was cultivated as a Japanese garden. It is said that the third ''shōgun''

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

admired this garden when he visited and used it as a model for the Fukiage part of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established the ...

. Located west of the Ofuke Garden was lord

Tokugawa Naritomo was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Edo period, who ruled the Owari Domain. His childhood name was Yasuchiyo (愷千代). He had a retreat north of Nagoya Castle called ''Shin Goten'' (新御殿 New Palace) in what is today Horibata-chō (堀端 ...

's ''Shin Goten'' (新御殿 New Palace) in what is today Horibata-chō (堀端町). After the

Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

, the land was reclaimed and used as a military drill ground. The area was converted into a public park in 1931.

Facilities

The park includes

Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium , also known as , is a multi-purpose gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan, built in 1964. Overview Located on the site of the secondary enclosure of Nagoya Castle, it is host to numerous concerts and events. The gymnasium has 4,375 fixed seats, and can ...

and

Nagoya City Archives Nagoya City Archives (名古屋市市政資料館) is a historic building located in the city of Nagoya, central Japan. It was constructed in 1922 during the Taishō era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 ...

, as well as other facilities. Periodically, flower exhibits are held in this park. In addition, the park itself has many flowers being cultivated inside, including famously its

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...

, which usually bloom at the end of April and beginning of May, and especially its

cherry blossom A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...

s, which usually bloom at the beginning of April.

Access

Shiyakusho Station is an underground metro station located in Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan operated by the Nagoya Municipal Subway. It is located 4.3 rail kilometers from the terminus of the Meijō Line at Kanayama Station. This station provides acc ...

and

Meijō Kōen Station is a railway station in Kita-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan This station provides access to Meijō Park is a public park surrounding Nagoya Castle in Kita-ku, Nagoya, Japan History The name Meijō derives itself from the abbrev ...

provide access to the park. Meijō Kōen Station is named after this park, and the subway line it is on, namely the

Meijō Line The is a subway line forming part of the Nagoya Municipal Subway system in Nagoya, Japan, operated by Transportation Bureau City of Nagoya. It is a loop line that runs from Kanayama, via Sakae, Ōzone, Nagoya Daigaku, and back to Kanayam ...

, is named after Nagoya Castle which is inside the park.

References

External links

Information from the Nagoya Convention and Visitor's Bureau
Parks and gardens in Nagoya Nagoya Castle {{Aichi-geo-stub

History

Facilities

Access

See also

References

External links