is a Tokyo metropolitan park in Nishigahara,

Kita, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is City of Kita. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated po ...

. The park includes a Western-style

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

, a Western-style

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped ...

, and a Japanese-style garden, all of which were built in early 20th century.

Outline

The gardens were built by

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Toranosuke Furukawa. The Western-style mansion and garden were designed by English architect Josiah Conder and were completed by 1917. Conder was called the "father of Japanese modern architecture" and also designed

Rokumeikan The was a large two-story building in Tokyo, completed in 1883, which became a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the Meiji period. Commissioned for the housing of foreign guests by the Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru, it was designed by ...

, Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden, and

Holy Resurrection Cathedral The , also known as , is the main cathedral of the Japanese Orthodox Church, located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. History Archbishop Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin (1836–1912), later St. Nicholas of Japan, was the founder of the Japanese Orthodo ...

. The Japanese garden was designed by

Ogawa Jihei VII , also known under his titular name as the seventh Ueji (植治), was a Japanese garden architect of the Meiji era and Taishō era of modern Japan. Biography He was born Yamamoto Gennosuke and adopted into the Ogawa family at the age of 17 wit ...

and was completed in 1919. Baron Furukawa was the owner of Furukawa zaibatsu which owned

Ashio copper mine The was a copper mine located in the town of Ashio, Tochigi (now part of the city of Nikkō, Tochigi), in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was the site of Japan's first major pollution disaster in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 ...

Western building and garden

The exterior of the building and the ground floor rooms are designed in the Western style, but the second floor rooms are mostly in Japanese style with

tatami are soft mats used as flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. They are made in standard sizes, twice as long as wide, about , depending on the region. In martial arts, tatami are used for training in a dojo and for competition. ...

mats. The mansion is built on a steep slope of

Musashino Terrace The , also translated from Japanese as Musashino Platform and also named Musashino Region, is a large tableland that sits between the Arakawa and Tama rivers in the Kantō region of Honshu, Japan. The plateau consists of an alluvial fan formed ...

. The building is located on the top of a hill, with the Western-style garden on the slope, and Japanese garden on the bottom. The western garden is a complex of

Italian style Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and geometric

French style French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

rose garden. On the bottom of the western garden is a

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

plantation which harmonises the western geometric garden and non-geometric Japanese garden.

Japanese garden

The Japanese garden is surrounded by a deep forest. The Western building and garden are hidden by tall trees. In the centre of the stroll garden is an artificial pond called "Shinji-ike" ("Heart letter pond"). The pond's shoreline is designed in the shape of the

Kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, 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 and are ...

"心(Shin)", which means "heart". Around the pond are

Tōrō are a type of traditional East Asian lantern made of stone, wood, or metal. Originating in China, stone lanterns spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam, though they are most commonly found in both China – extant in Buddhist temples and traditional ...

s (stone lanterns), artificial hills, water falls, islands, and a tea ceremony house. The park in its current state was opened to the public in 1956.

Access

General admission is ¥150. The park is open daily until 5 PM. It is a quick walk from

Kami-Nakazato Station is a JR East railway station located in Kita, Tokyo, Japan. Line Kami-Nakazato Station is served by the Keihin-Tōhoku Line between and stations. Both rapid and local services stop at this station. Station Layout This station consists of a ...

on the JR Keihin-Tōhoku Line or

Nishigahara Station is a subway station in the Tokyo Metro network. It is located in Kita, Tokyo. The station is the least used on the entire Metro network. Kyu-Furukawa Gardens can be reached by walking from this station. Lines *Tokyo Metro Namboku Line (stati ...

on the

Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line The is a subway line owned and operated by Tokyo Metro in Tokyo, Japan. The line runs between Meguro in Shinagawa and Akabane-Iwabuchi in Kita. The Namboku Line was referred to as Line 7 during the planning stages, thus the seldom-used offici ...

. File:Kay-Furukawa gardens 2025 March 6 various.jpeg, Entrance to the gardens. File:Deepfocus.JPG, The outside of the mansion that can be found in the gardens. File:Kyu-Furukawa Gardens 2012 11 9.webm, Several scenes from inside the park, 2012. File:Baraen2.jpg, The rose garden is built on a slope and has a geometric structure. File:Kyufurukawagardens-fallfoilage-nov9-2012.jpg, The Japanese garden, the pond. A

tōrō are a type of traditional East Asian lantern made of stone, wood, or metal. Originating in China, stone lanterns spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam, though they are most commonly found in both China – extant in Buddhist temples and traditional ...

on the left.

Popular culture

The garden guesthouse features in the popular series ''

Umineko When They Cry is a Japanese dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. Its first episode debuted at Comiket 72 for Windows in August 2007. The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, ...

''. It is also featured in the first episode of the ''

Super Sentai The is a Japanese superhero team media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi. The shows are of the '' tokusatsu'' genre, featuring live action characters and colorfu ...

'' season '' Choujin Sentai Jetman''.

References