Visit Duration
60 minutes
Suizen-ji Jōju-en
水前寺成趣園Kumamoto
Garden
What makes this place special?
At a Glance
Suizen-ji Jōju-en is a Japanese strolling garden in the eastern part of Kumamoto, commonly called Suizenji Park. The Hosokawa clan, lords of Kumamoto Domain, built it in the Edo period, and it covers about 73,000 square meters.
The site began around 1636 as a tea house beside a spring-fed pond, and was later remade as a circuit garden with an artificial hill said to be modeled on Mount Fuji. Its name, Jōju-en, comes from a line in a poem by Tao Yuanming. The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 destroyed the tea house, and former retainers then founded Izumi Shrine on the grounds. The hall called Kokin-Denju-no-Ma, moved here in 1912, is linked to the transmission of the secrets of the Kokin Wakashū poetry anthology. The garden was designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty and a National Historic Site in 1929.
Goshuin within a short walk
Temples, shrines and castles near Suizen-ji Jōju-en that give goshuin, closest first.
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