Kanazawa Gardens (Kenrokuen and Gyokusenen)
Jul 29th, 2006 by Ad Blankestijn
Kanazawa, the historical town in Ishikawa prefecture, boasts two superb gardens. One is famous and public, the other private and much less well-known. One is bright and open, the other dark and secluded. The first one is the famous Kenrokuen, one of Japan’s daimyo gardens; lesser-known Gyokusenen is the other one. A visit to both gardens is a study in contrasts, an inquiry into the garden art of Yin and Yang.
Kenrokuen
Kenrokuen advertises itself as one of the most beautiful Japanese landscape gardens in the world. It has been so successful in its promotional efforts that it is also one of the most crowded ones. Every single tourist to Kanazawa visits the garden; every tour bus, every school excursion disgorges its human load onto Kenrokuen’s pathways.
Although the garden’s paths are wide, the resulting human density forms a severe impediment to enjoying the garden’s beauty. So visit early (in summer the garden already opens at seven) or late, or come when it rains. I paid my last visit during a downpour in the rainy season and fell in love with the garden, although during another visit it had left me cold. Thanks to the rain, there were no crowds, and the falling water acted as a screen, fading out other people’s voices and faces, turning the garden almost into a private possession.
(The two-legged lantern)
Kenrokuen was the private garden of the Maeda lords, who ruled Kanazawa from the adjacent castle. Layout started in the 17th century, but for two-hundred years the Maeda’s kept adding and making adjustments. The garden was in fact only finished in 1871 when the feudal regime fell and Kenrokuen was opened to the public.
The name ‘Kenrokuen’ denotes a garden that combines the six attributes of a perfect garden: spaciousness, seclusion, artificiality, antiquity, abundant water and broad views. These are old Chinese concepts which serve to indicate the variety incorporated in Kenrokuen.
What first struck me after I entered and stood at the edge of the Misty Pond was the quality of the engineering: although located on a hill, more than 50 meters above sea level, the garden possesses abundant water in its four ponds and numerous streams. The answer to this technical riddle is that in 1632 the Maeda lords brought water here from a 10 kilometer distant river, the Saigawa, whose bed is again 50 meters higher than the hill of Kenrokuen. The tunnel system (called Tatsumi yosui) trough which the water flows to the garden still functions today. When in the late 19th century the first fountain ever placed in Japan was set up in Kenrokuen it was made to operate with the same, natural water pressure.
The Misty Pond (Kasumigaike) at whose edge stands the famous two-legged kotoji lantern (now the symbol of the garden and in fact of Kanazawa; kotoji is the bridge of a koto or Japanese zither) is the largest pond. A teahouse stands at one edge and on its surface floats the Tortoise island.
(Lantern in the Gourd Pond)
The other large pond is the Gourd Pond (Hisago-ike) in the southwest of Kenrokuen, which is probably the oldest part of the garden. A six meter high waterfall cascades down into its waters, next to an island on which a pagoda-like structure rises up. A large stone lantern stands just inside the pond, in view of the old Yugaotei teahouse decorating its shore.
Other remarkable points of Kenrokuen include the Flying Wild Geese Bridge (eleven stones arranged as geese flying in formation), the the Turban-shell Hill (with a path spiraling upwards like a shellfish or sazae) and the Karasaki pine. In winter this pine tree, as well as the other trees in the garden, is tied up with poles and rope (yukitsuri) to protect it from the heavy snow.
There is a Hill of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune, a Snow Viewing Bridge and a Wagtail Island, a Dragon Rock and a Tiger Stone… Besides these internal picturesque spots, there is also a panoramic lookout point affording a good view of the Hakusan mountain range and the coast - that is, if it is not raining.
Going around the garden, one thing struck my mind. It is often said that Japanese gardens are less artificial than Western ones. That is an obvious untruth: the pruned trees, sometimes purposely bent like large bonsai; the carefully selected stones and rocks all symbolizing something extraneous; the man-made ponds and hills, the planted flowers and shrubs: in a small space man has artificially created a garden universe that never could exist in nature.
(Misty Pond)
The only difference with the West is that the artificiality is hidden, the forms are made to seem as they appear in nature, while in European classical gardens man openly imposes himself upon nature with unnatural, geometrical forms, clearly flouting his mastery. In Japanese gardens, naturalness was the ideal, but it was only arrived at with artificial and contrived means. It could not have been otherwise, or there would be no garden art.
Kenrokuen has beautiful cherry trees in spring, irises in early summer, and red foliage in autumn. In winter the snowy scenery and the umbrella-like rope constructions to protect the trees add a special flavor.
It is indeed a great garden, especially when the rain keeps the crowds away.
1-4 Kenroku-machi, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken. Tel. 076-221-5850
7:00-18:00 (from Oct. 16 to Febr. 28/29: 8:00-16:30). ¥300.
3-min. walk from Kenrokuen-shita bus stop.
Gyokusenen
Kanazawa’s most famous garden may be Kenrokuen, but true garden enthusiasts prefer nearby Gyokusenen. This predilection stems not only from the happy lack of tourists and tour groups, but is in the first place due to the expert design of the small-scale, secluded garden.
Constructed on a slope, the back of the garden is formed by the green wall of Kenrokuen. Gyokusenen receives its water via a small canal from that same big brother. It was established as the private garden of Wakita Naokata, chamberlain to the Maedas (the daimyo of Kanazawa), and several generations of Wakitas poured their efforts into perfecting this small universe. The garden’s name was derived from Gyokusenin, the wife of the second Maeda lord, who acted as patroness to the garden’s founder.
Interesting fact is, that this creator was born in Korea as Kim Yeocheol; he had come to Japan through the Korean Campaign of Hideyoshi in 1592 and by a twist of fortune ended up as page and later chamberlain of the second Maeda lord Toshinaga. The name ‘Wakita’ was conferred upon him at the time he married into that Kanazawa family. In the early 20th century ownership the garden was transferred to the Nishidas, leading to its alternative name, Nishida-ke Teien or Nishida Family Garden.
The garden consists of four parts. Visitors enter via the small West Garden where among the dense shrubs stands an Oribe type secret Christian stone lantern. In the base of the lantern, hidden by surrounding plants, an image of the virgin Mary has been carved. I do not know if this means that Wakita Naokata indeed was a secret Christian (Christianity had been forbidden by the shogunate) or that it was just fashion to have such lanterns in one’s garden. Close to the Western Room in the garden also stands a cylindrical stone basin embossed with reeds and frogs.
(Stone basin in Gyokusenen)
Through a rustic gate one enters the Main Garden, but turns immediately right to ascend to the highest part at the back, called Saisetsutei Roji. Here one finds a small pond and in front of that the Saisetsutei tea house. This Roji section was devised by the famous tea master Sen Soshitsu. In the Saisetsutei is a small tea room (even less than two-and -a-half mats), with anteroom and preparation room. There are two entrances, one for important people, and a much smaller one of only 60 centimeters for those who served them. The construction is beautiful in its simplicity. In front of the tea house also stands a tree brought from Korea by the constructor of the garden.
Along the Eastern Waterfall that plunges down over three tiers, one descends to the main garden that almost completely consists of a large pond. The pond is in the shape of the Chinese character for ‘water’ and contains an islet, as a way of adding perspective. One can gaze out over the pond from the verandah of the Kanuntei, another teahouse, this time a modern replica of a tea room in the Ura-Senke school in Kyoto. In front of this again stands a water basin, square and decorated with the carving of a paulownia leaf. One exits, finally, via the small and mossy Eastern Garden.
With its large ancient trees, and rich and variegated plantings, Gyokusenen affords great pleasure to the eye. Though not very large, thanks to the skillful use of the slope and the division into sections of different character, the scenery changes with every step one sets along the meandering path. It is a masterful example of Edo period garden art.
8-3 Koshomachi, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken. Tel: 076-221-0181
9:00-16:00. Closed early December - early March. ¥500.
2-min. walk from Kenrokuen-shita bus stop; 5 min. walk from Kenrokuen.
[Republished with revisions from my website The Japan Pages]
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