Yūshi-en, Japanese garden on Daikonshima Island, Matsue, Japan
Yūshi-en is a 40,000 m² pond-strolling garden on Daikonshima Island in Matsue, opened in 1975. Its grounds combine a pond circuit, a cold-weather peony garden, a dry landscape garden, a white sand and green pine garden, a lava garden and an "Oku-Izumo valley" section. The Peony Hall shows blooms year-round, and the grounds also hold the Unshū Ginseng Museum.
Kadowaki Sakae began building the garden in December 1970 to develop tourism on Daikonshima; its first phase opened in April 1975. A second phase followed in 1982 and a third in 1992, and the indoor Peony Hall was completed in 1996 and 1999. The garden became a limited company in 1988 and founded Yūshi-en Agricultural Co. in 2009.
The garden's name joins the "Yū" of founder Mankawa Sakae's father Yuzō with "shi", meaning intent: Sakae's stated aim was to serve the island's tourism rather than himself. Each April to early May the Daikonshima Peony Festival holds its "Botan Enyūkai" gathering here, and since 2017 Yūshi-en has joined the peony show held in Taipei's Jianguo假日 flower market before Lunar New Year.
The garden lies on Daikonshima Island in Matsue. From Matsue Station, city buses reach the Yūshi-en Iriguchi stop in 46 to 52 minutes, about four minutes on foot from there; from Sakaiminato Station a community bus takes 41 minutes to the same stop. By car it is 35 minutes from Yonago Station and 15 minutes from Yonago Airport.
The garden's name comes from founder Kadowaki Sakae's father, Yuzō: he took the character 由 from his father rather than his own name, while 志 refers to his aim of developing Daikonshima's tourism. The garden opened in April 1975 after construction began in December 1970.
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