Tonogayato Garden

photo by 福原邦展 · CC BY 3.0

Former Iwasaki villa, the first garden in the Tama area to become a National Monument, in 2011

The garden began as a villa in 1913–1915 for an executive of the South Manchuria Railway, and passed in 1929 to the Iwasaki family (Mitsubishi). The path goes down from the Western-style lawn at the top to the Jirō Benten spring pond at the bottom, through a maple wood and a bamboo grove. In September 2011 it became the first garden in the Tama area to receive the national designation of 名勝 (Place of Scenic Beauty).

It opened to the public in 1979, after a residents' movement had called for its protection against a building project. The official cultural properties database (国指定文化財等データベース, bunka.go.jp) dates the 名勝 designation to 21 September 2011, also confirmed by the City of Kokubunji and (read directly in this session) by the operator's official page: ‘殿ヶ谷戸庭園は平成23年9月に国指定の文化財(名勝）となりました’. A ‘1998’ that circulates in some English-language sources (a TripAdvisor box, English Wikipedia) is an error, corrected here.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), closed 29/12–1/1, confirmed by reading the official page directly in this session. Entry 150 yen adults (70 yen over-65s). ⚠️ The descent towards the Jirō Benten pond is steep and has no handrail in some stretches, on a stony path not well suited to wheelchairs; several reviews also report mosquitoes. A visit takes from 20 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the season (autumn leaves included).

🚉 Kokubunji · 2 min walk

Sources: tokyo-park.or.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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