Rikugien Garden is a traditional Japanese garden from the Edo period located in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo. This beautiful garden is one of Japan’s top ten places to visit in autumn.
The name of the garden comes from a combination of two words – “rikugi”, symbolizing six types of medieval waka poetry, and “en” – a garden or park.
The history of the Rikugien garden began in 1695, when the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi presented a picturesque plot of land to his supreme adviser and favorite, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, who decided to plant a garden here.
Yoshiyasu loved waka poetry and therefore designed the garden based on 88 poetic images from the works of Manyoshu and Kokinshu.