Hakone Gardens, Japanese garden in Saratoga, United States.

Hakone Gardens is an 18-acre Japanese estate in Saratoga with terraced hillside gardens, traditional buildings, tiered waterfalls, koi ponds, stone lanterns, and bamboo groves. The grounds are carefully composed to create a harmonious landscape where natural features flow together.

Oliver and Isabel Stine bought the 18-acre Saratoga site in 1915 as a summer retreat. Inspired by the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and her 1916 trip to Japan, Isabel Stine had the garden laid out by Japanese landscape artists, credited to Naoharu Aihara, with the Upper "Moon Viewing" House credited to Tsunematsu Shintani. Construction ran from 1917 to 1929, and in 1923 the garden hosted the west coast premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The four gardens each serve a different purpose: the Hill and Pond Garden, completed in 1918, is the oldest, with a waterfall feeding a koi pond and an island reached by bridge; the Zen Garden of raked gravel dates to 1922; the Tea Garden follows the roji pattern. The Bamboo Garden, added in 1987, is named Kizuna-en ("bond garden") for Saratoga's sister-city tie with Muko, Kyoto Prefecture. Since 2000 an annual October tea gathering, the Hakone Ochanoyu, brings together practitioners of different tea schools.

The garden sits on a hillside above Saratoga, with the Hill and Pond Garden, Zen Garden and Tea Garden on the original level and newer trails cut into the southwest slope. Paths are sloping and partly unpaved, so wear firm shoes. The Upper House and Lower House are reached on foot from the main gate.

The Bamboo Garden, added in 1987, is named Kizuna-en ("Garden of Bonds") for Saratoga's sister-city tie with Mukō, Kyoto Prefecture. The garden's expansion followed a master plan by gardener Tanso Ishihara and architect Kiyoshi Yasui; Ishihara died in an accident in 1980, and friends and city authorities carried out his plan.