Former Byakugō-in Garden, Japanese strolling garden in Sakamoto, Japan.
The Former Byakugō-in Garden is a Japanese strolling garden featuring winding paths past trees, shrubs, and water features arranged in traditional patterns. The layout includes seasonal plants, stone groupings, and ponds that showcase how classical Japanese gardeners worked with natural forms.
The garden was laid out in the early Edo period within the grounds of Byakugō-in, a sub-temple of Enryaku-ji's East Pagoda East Valley in Sakamoto. In the early Meiji era it passed to the ownership of the Fukuyōen restaurant. Its cave and the stone walls of the outer enclosure, built in the Anō-shū masonry style, survive from before the Edo period.
The garden belonged to Byakugō-in, one of the sub-temples of Enryaku-ji's East Pagoda East Valley in Sakamoto. In the early Meiji era it passed to the Fukuyōen restaurant, and the grounds keep their pre-Edo appearance, including a cave built in the Kan'ei era and stone walls of Anō-shū masonry. The cave, with three entrances and a Mount Fuji-shaped mound above, is an Ōtsu City cultural property.
The garden is open from 9:30 to 21:00. It lies in the Sakamoto Traditional Buildings Preservation District, a 5-minute walk from Sakamoto-Hieizanguchi Station on the Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line, or 15 minutes from Hieizan-Sakamoto Station on the Kosei Line. The former Chikurin-in Garden stands across the way.
The cave in the garden was built in the Kan'ei era (1624–1644) and has three entrances; above it rises a mound shaped like Mount Fuji. It is a Cultural Property designated by the city of Ōtsu, and the garden's outer stone walls use Anō-shū masonry.
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