Former Daijoin Temple Garden, Historical Japanese garden in Takabatakechō, Japan.

The Former Daijoin Temple Garden is a classic Japanese garden featuring a central pond, carefully placed stones, and winding paths that meander through the grounds. The vegetation shifts with the seasons and transforms the feeling of the place throughout the year.

Daijo-in was one of the two monzeki temples of Kofukuji, founded in 1087 north of the temple. Burned in 1180 during Taira no Shigehira's sack of Nara, it was moved in 1181 to the site of the former Zentoin, a branch of Gangoji at the foot of Mt. Kion (Asukayama). The main halls burned again in the 1451 Tokusei uprising, and rebuilding began the next year.

The garden displays traditional Japanese design principles through its arrangement of water features, stones, and seasonal plants that visitors discover while walking. These elements create small rooms and changing perspectives that shift with each step.

The garden is located near Nara Hotel and is open to visitors daily, with a modest entrance fee for adults. The best times to explore are early mornings or late afternoons, when fewer people are around.

The garden was not restored by Zenami but created by him: in 1463 the monk Jinson commissioned Zenami and his son to lay it out, and it was praised as the finest garden in Nanto. The pond-and-hill layout was later tidied in the Edo period, and excavations from 1995 uncovered a small waterfall and a pond with an island, called the North Pond.