Three most beautiful gardens in Japan

There are various garden styles in Japan. My favorite style is dry landscape garden associated with Zen philosophy. But garden styles of Zen temple are not limited to dry landscape garden, as seen in Tenryu-ji in Kyoto, where borrowed landscape technique is used with a "path around a pond" style garden.

There are so called three most something in Japan, where something can be bridge, waterfall, or anything. Garden is not an exception and three are designated. All three are from Edo period from 17th to 19th century and made by samurai lord.

From east to west,

#1. Kairaku-en, Ibaraki prefecture
Tokugawa shogunate had three family branch, one in Kishu (modern Wakayama prefecture), one in Owari (modern Aichi prefecture), and one in Mito (modern Ibaraki prefecture).
Kairaku-en was built by Tokugawa Nariaki of Mito Tokugawa family in the mid 19th century for the purpose of recreational center for ordinary people. Plum tree is famous in the garden, which was initially planted for two reasons. One was to view the beauty of the blossoms, the other was more practical to help increase the food supplies.
Tokugawa Mitsukuni was famous in Mito Tokugawa family, who administered this domain in the 17th century. Mitsukuni began the big project to chronicle whole of the Japanese history from ancient times long before samurai or shogun had been there. This project took centuries to complete, but this history book project cast the doubt on the legitimacy of shogunate and began the Mito school of philosophy, which contributed to the demise of shogunate and ushered in Meiji Restoration. Small museum sits besides Kairaku-en showing the history of Mito Tokugawa family, and stone monument for "Dai-Nihon-Shi", or Great Japanese History Book, is in the precinct of the garden.

Kairaku-en, Sep 2015

Kairaku-en, Sep 2015

#2. Kenroku-en, Ishikawa prefecture
Kaga Hyakuman-goku, or Kaga million rice bushel, was the name given to the largest samurai family besides Tokugawa's during the Tokugawa or Edo shogunate time. Kenroku-en was built by Maeda clan using this enormous wealth.
After new Hokuriku shinkansen bullet train was opened in 2015, which links Tokyo and Kanazawa where this garden is located, the number of visitors surges.
The express train Thunderbird took about two hours from Osaka or Kyoto to reach Kanazawa.

Kenroku-en, May 2012

Kenroku-en, May 2012

#3. Koraku-en, Okayama prefecture
When I saw the garden in Alhambra palace in Spain, I was really struck by its beauty. Then I first visited Koraku-en one year after Alhambra, and my impression was that Koraku-en and Alhambra were in the same class just in different style.
Okayama city sits between Fukuoka/Hiroshima and Osaka, and conveniently accessed by Sanyo shinkansen bullet train.
Koraku-en was built by samurai lord Ikeda Tsunamasa in the 17th century. With Okayama castle in the background, walking around this garden is refreshing in spring, autumn, and winter, but I don't know how it feels in summer as I have never been to this garden in that season. There are hills, ponds, rice fields, hut, tea houses, water streams.

Koraku-en, May 2012

Koraku-en, May 2012