Himeji Gardens, Japanese garden in Adelaide, South Australia

Himeji Gardens is a Japanese garden in Park 18 of the Adelaide Park Lands, entered from South Terrace. It is divided into a sansui, a mountain and lake garden with a dark reflective pond, grey boulders, a rocky island with a sculpted pine, and flat lily pads, and a kare-sansui, a dry rock garden of raked gravel. The Okunoin granite lantern, gifted by Himeji in 1985, stands in the garden.

Adelaide and Himeji became sister cities in 1982, and the garden was first laid out by council staff with the Adelaide Japanese community. After criticism of its cyclone fence and lack of detail, designer Yoshitaka Kumada drew up refurbishment plans in 1986. Work began after a Shinto ground-breaking ceremony in May 1987, with Kumada overseeing it, and the redesign was completed in 1989.

The garden is divided into a sansui, a mountain and lake garden, and a kare-sansui, a dry rock garden meant to evoke mountains surrounded by water, even the sea. The Sea of Sand is raked with waves meeting the islands and straight lines for the open ocean, a pattern the council's horticulture team maintains by hand.

The garden sits in Park 18 of the Adelaide Park Lands and can be reached from South Terrace between Pulteney and Hutt streets. It works best to walk through slowly and take time to notice the details and plant arrangements throughout the space.

The garden is divided into two parts: a sansui, or mountain and lake garden, and a kare-sansui, a dry rock garden meant to evoke mountains surrounded by water. The Sea of Sand is raked by the council's horticulture team, who keep waves running toward the islands and straight lines for the open ocean.