Koishikawa Kōrakuen Garden, Daimyo garden in Bunkyo City, Japan.
Koishikawa Kōrakuen is an Edo-period garden in the Kōraku district of Bunkyo City, combining ponds, hills, bridges, and pavilions across a wooded terrain. The paths wind through changing scenes of water, stone, and trees, arranged to represent miniature versions of Japanese and Chinese landscapes.
Tokugawa Yorifusa, first lord of the Mito domain, had the garden laid out in 1629 on land granted by the shogun; his retainers Sakai Tadayo and Doi Toshikatsu oversaw the work, and the daimyo garden designer Tokudaiji Sahyoe shaped the hills and set the great stone on the central island. Yorifusa's son Mitsukuni, second lord, later enlarged it with the Chinese scholar Zhu Shunshui, who named it Kōrakuen after a line in Fan Zhongyan's essay on Yueyang Tower. The garden was opened to the public in 1938.
The name Kōrakuen comes from a phrase in Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Tower" essay, chosen by the Ming loyalist Zhu Shunshui: "worry before all under heaven worries, rejoice after all under heaven rejoices." Zhu, who served the Mito domain, also advised on the garden's Chinese features, such as the West Lake embankment and the Gekketsu Bridge, whose reflection forms a full moon.
Opening hours run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last entry half an hour before closing. Two entrances on the east and west sides provide access from the surrounding city.
A small rice paddy sits within the grounds, recalling the agricultural practice of the feudal period. The trees shift their colors through the seasons, from plum blossoms in spring to red maple leaves in autumn.
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