Mukojima Hyakkaen

Japanese: 向島百花園 (mukoujima hyakkaen)

Mukôjima Hyakkaen, or Mukôjima Hundred Flowers Garden, is a Japanese garden located in the Mukôjima area of Tokyo. It is famous for its many stones inscribed with poetry by notable Edo period figures, and for its overall atmosphere which differs from that of daimyô gardens.

The garden was first established in 1805, when Edoite Sahara Kikura obtained some 3,000 tsubo from the former grounds of a Taga clan mansion. With the help of several other literati, he planted a great number of plum trees, creating a garden which was initially known as 'Shin ume yashiki (New Plum Mansion). The gardens quickly came to be a popular site for local people to relax and enjoy themselves.

Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi paid a formal visit to the garden in 1845, in order to view the plum blossoms, and in the Meiji period the garden came to have some association with the Imperial Court. Further, records survive of many notable individuals paying visits to the garden.

The Hyakkaen was nationally designated as a Place of Scenic Beauty (meishô) in February 1933, and became the public property of Tokyo City in October 1938. The City restored the gardens, and opened them to the public (in a limited fashion) beginning in July the following year. The entire garden was burned and destroyed in World War II, but was restored and reopened by 1949. In 1978, the park was re-designated a Place of Scenic Beauty, and simultaneously a Historic Site.

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References

Plaques on-site.[1]