Isuien Garden
From Nara
Station we walked about 15mins to Isuien Garden, which is located just before
Nara Park and west of the Nandaimon Gate and Todaiji Temple (which we will
cover later in the article). Alternatively, the garden can also be reached by
bus from the station, only taking 5 minutes.
Walking
through the entrance gate, the exquisite Isuien Garden hit us straight away,
with its pond, steppingstones, hills, niwaki pine trees, and it’s clever use of
borrowed scenery in the back drop…stunning!
The attractive Isuien Garden covers nearly three acres and has a variety
of features, with abundant greenery, ponds, walkways…and using the Todaiji
Temple’s Nandaimon Gate and Mount Wakausayama as the borrowed scenery mentioned.
The garden
is a combination of two strolling garden’s designed in two different periods,
the Edo Period and the Meiji Period. The front part of the garden has the
longest history and dates back to the mid-17th century, whereas the
rear part of the garden is more recent and was built in 1899 by a wealthy
merchant. The garden was designated a “scenic site” by the government in 1975.
From the pond area of the garden the paths then took us into a more wooded area, which was very peaceful, with small streams, cobbled type paths and tea houses…from there the path circled back on itself to where we had first entered the garden. Although Nara seemed very busy, the garden was not, and very peaceful and enjoyable to walk around and taking its splendour…maybe people were unaware this little oasis existed!!
To enter the
garden there is an admission fee of 1200 yen (£8.20), although a bit more
compared to other attractions, the Isuien Garden is situated nearby another
garden, the Yoshikien Garden which is free to enter! Also next to the garden
and included in the admission fee is a small museum that displays pottery,
seals, mirrors and other artifacts.
Isuien means
“garden founded on water”, as the gardens name derives from the fact that it’s
ponds are fed by the small nearby Yoshikigawa River, with the Yoshikien Garden
being located on the other side of the river.
Walking
around the pond there are many beautiful viewpoints of the garden’s features. The
pond has a small island in the centre, with the steppingstones across the pond
on one side and a bridge on the other. The steppingstones are designed and
placed in a way that the person walking across them needs to observe each stone
and so appreciate their individual beauty!
Please find our other Nara articles in the 'Nara' section of the website.
