Sengan'en
- Built: 1658
- Other Names: 磯庭園 (Iso teien)
- Japanese: 仙巖園 (Sengan'en)
Sengan'en is a formal garden in Kagoshima, associated with the Iso Palace, a secondary villa (bettei) of the Shimazu clan. It is today a part of the Shôkoshûseikan complex.
The garden, along with the Iso Palace, were constructed in 1658, by Shimazu Mitsuhisa. The site was used for the personal leisure of the daimyô, as well as for entertaining guests, including officials from Ryûkyû Kingdom, and a watchtower said to have been a gift from the King of Ryûkyû still stands on the grounds. Notable elements within the garden include the pewter-roofed main gate, and a set of lanterns said to have been the first gaslamps in Japan. The garden uses the "borrowed scenery" technique to borrow Kinkô Bay and Sakurajima into its arrangement, with the intention of producing the illusion of the two being merely a small hill in a pond, just beyond the walls.
The Iso Palace became the chief Kagoshima residence of the Shimazu following the Meiji Restoration. Most of the compound was renovated in 1884, and about a third of it survives today.
References
- Pamphlet available at Shôkoshûseikan.
