Okayama · KorakuenNo.609★★★Open in map →
Okayama Korakuen Garden
A daimyo's garden beside the Asahi River in Okayama, laid out around wide lawn, ponds and a stream rather than dense planting, with the black keep of Okayama Castle rising across the water. It is counted among Japan's three great gardens.
- FromOkayama Station
- ~20 minOkaden tram, then a walk
- Get off atShiroshita tram stop (Okayama Electric Tramway)
- On foot
- Okayama Korakuen Garden
Where it is
14 more notes in Okayama · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Enyoteithe lord's own hall, sited so that the garden opens out in front of it
- Yuishinzanthe low grassed hill at the centre, climbed for the one view that takes in the whole layout
- Sawa-no-ikethe largest pond, holding three islands with a teahouse set on one of them
- Ryutenan open pavilion with a stream led through its stone floor, sat on rather than entered
- The rice paddy and tea plantationworking ground kept inside the garden since the domain's own day
How to actually get there
- Okayama Station → Shiroshita (Okayama Electric Tramway, about 5 min).
- Walk east across the Asahi River to the garden entrance, about 10 minutes.
- Inside, take the lawn path up the low central hill for the view over the whole layout, then drop to the largest pond.
- Finish at the stream pavilion and the rice paddy, then cross to Okayama Castle.
- Okaden tram from Okayama Station
- Okayama Station →(Okayama Electric Tramway, Higashiyama service, about 5 min)→ Shiroshita. From the stop it is about 10 minutes on foot: head east, cross the Asahi River, and the garden entrances are on the far bank. Trams leave from the forecourt in front of the station throughout the day, so no timetable planning is needed.
- Return from Shiroshita
- Walk back over the river to Shiroshita and take the tram to the stop in front of Okayama Station. Buses also run to the station from the Korakuen-mae stop on the garden's own bank. Services thin out once the garden has closed, so check the board at the stop if you carry on to the castle first.
About the place
Korakuen lies on the flat ground across the Asahi River from Okayama Castle, and the castle is part of the composition — the garden was laid out to take it in rather than shut it out. Where most celebrated Japanese gardens crowd a pond with planting, this one gives most of its ground to open lawn, cut by a winding stream and lifted at the centre by a low earth hill. A working rice paddy and a tea plantation sit inside the grounds, kept as they were when the domain used them. Paths connect a guest hall, a Noh stage and several small pavilions, and they are meant to be walked as a loop, so the same water keeps returning at a new angle.
How to enjoy it
From 20 March to 30 September the gates open at 7:30 and shut at 18:00; from 1 October to 19 March it runs 8:00 to 17:00. Take the first of those hours: arrive at opening, cross the lawn to the hill for the overall view, then come down to the pond and the stream before the day's groups reach the gate. Okayama Castle is a short walk over the bridge if you want to see the garden from the other bank afterwards.
Background & history
The Okayama lord Ikeda Tsunamasa ordered the garden in 1687 and put his retainer Tsuda Nagatada in charge of the work, which reached a first completion in 1700. Through the rest of the Edo period it stayed a private ground where the household received its guests. It was given the present name, Korakuen, and opened to the public in 1871, and in 1884 the Ikeda family passed it to Okayama Prefecture. Air raids in the last year of the war burned the buildings, which were rebuilt afterwards, and the state raised the grounds to a Special Place of Scenic Beauty in 1952.
Before you go
- Cash
- Admission is 500 yen for adults and 200 yen for those aged 65 and over, and high-school age and under enter free. Combined tickets that cover the garden together with Okayama Castle are sold at the windows. Buy at the gate you arrive at; there is no advance booking to arrange.
- Before you go
- Most of the garden is open ground, so weather reaches you directly and the lawn edges stay soft after heavy rain. The halls and pavilions are looked at from outside rather than entered. Beyond the daytime hours the grounds open after dark only during the seasonal evening events, so an ordinary visit ends when the gates do.
- Another way
- From the same station forecourt, buses for Korakuen leave from stand 1 and reach the Korakuen-mae stop in ten to fifteen minutes, setting you down on the garden's own bank — the shortest option if you would rather not walk at all. The garden is also about 25 minutes from the station on foot.
- After you get off
- From Shiroshita, walk east for about 10 minutes: the road crosses the Asahi River and the garden lies along the far bank, with Okayama Castle immediately to the south of it.