Asia

[Visited: February 2023]

After exploring the samurai and geisha districts of Kanazawa, the next place we do not want to miss is Kenrokuen, the traditional Japanese garden. It is considered one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, and given the amount of gardens there are, this in itself means something. We walk past the museum of contemporary art, which we leave for later, cross a street, enter through Mayumizaka gate, and pay our entrance fee. Kenrokuen was developed from somewhere early in the 17th century onward, during the Edo period, by the ruling Maeda clan. It was only opened to the public in 1871. Its name means Garden of Six Attributes, deemed ingredients of a perfect garden: antiquity, artifice, panoramas, spaciousness, seclusion, and waterways. Since some of them are contradictory, it was deemed a challenge to combine them. Kenrokuen (more correctly, Kenroku-en) has managed to achieve this combination.
With a walk through a perfect garden ahead of us, our expectations are high. We see a few other visitors, all Japanese - and wonder with which eyes they will see this garden. As is so often the case in Japan, we feel outsiders, and onlookers. We will enjoy Kenrokuen at face value. We almost immediately reach the Hisago Pond. The water has such a strong blue hue, the trees on the other side seem blue, too. Close by, we find small streams of water, with small stones placed in them. I assume someone has paid close attention to exactly where to lay the stones for a perfect composition. We have entered the park under a cover of trees (seclusion), and now enter an open section of the park (spaciousness). We have reached the higher part of the 25-acre Kenrokuen garden.
We walk small paths, see streams of water with bridges - some of which are closed - and reach the southeast side of Kenrokuen. Here, we find the Seison-kaku villa. We also see small groups of men maintaining the garden. A hell of a job: keeping gardens is a precise task in Japan, let alone one of the Three Great Gardens. We see trees with long branches, most leaning on poles for support. Winter sees heavy snowfall here. This also explains the network of ropes we see here, and which we had seen all over the city. This should prevent branches from breaking under the heavy weight of snow. We see some enormous pine trees, the Flying Goose Bridge, before we come to the Kasumiga Pond, the largest pond of Kenrokuen. Here, we find the two-legged Kotoji stone lantern, probably the most famous sight of the garden. It is indeed a perfect addition to the garden. From here, we enter a section with more trees: we are back to seclusion again. We may not be experts of Japanese gardens, but Kenrokuen has certainly impressed us!

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Kenrokuen > Japan > Asia

[Visited: February 2023]

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