Shukkeien

photo by Yoshio Kohara · CC BY 3.0

photo by Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0

Copied from Hangzhou's West Lake in 1620, razed to the ground in '45 and restored over thirty years.

The garden reproduces in miniature the West Lake (Xī Hú) of Hangzhou, in China (hence the name, ‘garden of miniature scenery’), among pavilions such as the Seifūkan and the Meigetsutei and about 110 different species of tree.

The daimyō garden of the Asano family, lords of the Hiroshima domain. The first lord of Hiroshima, Asano Nagaakira, began building it in 1620 as the garden of his villa, and entrusted its design to his counsellor and tea master Ueda Sōkō. The later Asano lords enlarged it; after the great fire of the Hōreki era (1758), the seventh lord, Asano Shigeakira, remade it almost from scratch in 1783, bringing in a gardener from Kyoto. Devastated by the atomic bomb in 1945, it was restored over about thirty years, with its pavilions rebuilt.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–18:00 (16 March–15 September), 9:00–17:00 (16 September–15 March, last entry half an hour before closing). Closed 29–31 December. Adult ticket 350 yen, university students 150 yen, students up to high school free since 14/04/2025.

🚉 Hiroshima · 15 min walk

Sources: shukkeien.jp · pref.hiroshima.lg.jp

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