![Shinjuku Gyoen 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Shinjuku_Gyoen_2010.11.10.JPG)
is a large park and garden in
Shinjuku
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...
and
Shibuya
Shibuya ( 渋谷 区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station.
As of April 1 ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, Japan. It was originally a residence of the Naitō family in 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 ...
. Afterward, it became a garden under the management of Japan
Imperial Household Agency
The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...
. It is now a national park under the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of the Environment.
History
The ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...
'' bequeathed this land to Lord Naitō (''
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 n ...
'') of Tsuruga in the Edo period who completed a garden here in 1772. After the Meiji Restoration the house and its grounds were converted into an experimental agricultural centre. It then became a botanical garden before becoming an imperial garden in 1879. The current configuration of the garden was completed in 1906. Most of the garden was destroyed by air raids in 1945, during the later stages of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The garden was rebuilt after the war.
The jurisdiction over the
Imperial Palace Outer Garden and the
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
imperial garden was transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
The is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as in Japan. The ministry provides services on health, labour and welfare.
It was formed with the merger of the former Ministry of Health and Welfare or and the ...
) in 1947.
On May 21, 1949, the garden became open to the public as a national park. It came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Environment in January 2001, with the official English name "Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden". The official Japanese name remains Shinjuku Gyoen, where gyoen means "imperial garden".
In 1989, the Shinjuku Gyoen was the site chosen for the
funeral rites of Emperor Shōwa before he was buried at the
Musashi Imperial Graveyard.
Features
The garden, which is 58.3 hectares in area with a circumference of 3.5 km, blends three distinct styles: a
French Formal and
English Landscape in the north and to the south a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
traditional. A traditional Japanese tea house can be found within the gardens. The garden is a favourite ''
hanami
is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; in this case almost always refer to those of the or, less frequently, trees. From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan, and around ...
'' (
cherry-blossom viewing) spot, and large crowds can be present during cherry blossom season.
Flora
The garden has more than 20,000 trees, including approximately 1,500
cherry tree
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).
Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...
s which bloom from late March (''Shidare'' or Weeping Cherry) to early April (''Somei'' or Tokyo Cherry), and on to late April (
''Kanzan'' Cherry). Other trees found here include the majestic Himalayan cedars, which soar above the rest of the trees in the park, tulip trees, cypresses, and plane trees, which were first planted in Japan in the Imperial Gardens.
Horticulture work has been happening in the garden greenhouses since 1892. The
present greenhouse, built in the 1950s has a stock of over 1,700 tropical and subtropical plant species on permanent display.
Entrances and admission
The garden has three access gates: Shinjuku Gate, Okido Gate, and
Sendagaya
is an area within Shibuya ward, one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo.
Introduction
Sendagaya is nestled in an urban green area in Shibuya ward between Shinjuku ward and Shinjuku Gyo-en (Shinjuku Imperial Gardens) to the north (an area in Senda ...
Gate. Shinjuku Gyoen is open from 9:00 until 16:30. On Mondays the garden is closed, except during the cherry blossom and
chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
seasons: late March–late April, and early November respectively, when the garden is open seven days a week. The greenhouse is open from 9:30 until 16:00. The last admission is at 16:00.
Location
The garden is a short walk from
Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station
is a subway station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo subway operator Tokyo Metro. It is numbered "M-10".
Lines
Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station is served by the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line.
Platforms
...
on the
Marunouchi Line
The is a subway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metro. The line runs in a U-shape between Ogikubo Station in Suginami and Ikebukuro Station in Toshima, with a branch line between Nakano-Sakaue Station and Hōnanchō Station. The offic ...
or
Sendagaya Station
is a railway station on the Chūō-Sōbu Line in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).
Lines
Sendagaya Station is served by Chūō-Sobu Line local services.
Station layout
The station consists of an island ...
on the
Chūō-Sōbu Line. The garden is on the
Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line
The , formally the , is a subway line operated by Tokyo Metro in west-central Tokyo and Wako, Saitama, Japan. The newest line in the Tokyo subway network, it opened in stages between 1994 and 2008. On average, the Fukutoshin line carries 362,654 ...
near
Shinjuku-sanchōme Station. From that station (exit C1) the garden is a four-minute walk.
In popular culture
In
Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal an ...
's ''
The Sound of the Mountain
is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954, and first published as a standalone book in 1954 by Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo.
Plot
Shingo Ogata, a 62-year-old businessman living in Kamakura and working in Tokyo, ...
'', Shingo declares, "You can stretch out. It's like getting out of Japan - I wouldn't have dreamed that there was a place like this right in the middle of Tokyo."
It is the setting of the 2013
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
''
The Garden of Words
is a 2013 Japanese anime drama film written, directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai, animated by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho. It stars Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa, and features music by Daisuke Kashiwa instead of Tenmon, who ha ...
''.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Shinjuku Gyoen official website (English)
{{Authority control
Gardens in Tokyo
Hanami spots of Japan
Parks and gardens in Tokyo
Shibuya
Shinjuku