Rikugi Garden, Daimyo garden in Hon-Komagome, Tokyo, Japan.
Rikugi Garden is a daimyo garden in Hon-Komagome, Bunkyō ward, built around a large central pond with wooded shores and artificial hills. Wide paths circle the water and connect different areas with pavilions, bridges, and grassy clearings.
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a close adviser to the fifth Tokugawa shogun, commissioned the estate in 1702 and named it after classical Japanese poetry. The Iwasaki family later acquired the grounds and donated them to Tokyo city in 1938.
The name comes from the six poetic forms (rikugi) set out in the preface to the Kokin Wakashū: fu, hi, kō, fū, ga and shō. Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, an accomplished waka poet, laid out 88 named views drawn from the Man'yōshū and Kokin Wakashū, echoing the scenery of Waka-no-ura in Kishu. Stone markers for these views still stand along the paths.
The entrance sits seven minutes on foot from Komagome Station on the JR Yamanote Line and opens daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends and bloom seasons draw larger crowds, so mornings or weekdays offer quieter visits.
During autumn and spring, the gates stay open until 9 p.m. so visitors can experience the illuminated maples and cherry trees after dark. These special hours turn the pond into a dark mirror full of reflected light.
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