I can’t express just how much I loved visiting this garden. It’s seriously in the running for my favorite thing the entire trip, something I haven’t been able to decide because the entire trip was so wonderful. Koko-en garden was beautifully laid out and it had 9 different not-so-mini gardens within the entire thing, which were each connected but mostly walled off from each other. Each of the mini gardens had certain themes like “The garden of bamboo” or “The garden of pine trees”. The garden also encompassed Souju-an tea ceremony house in which I experienced my first Japanese tea ceremony. Not to mention the traditional Japanese residence, waterfalls, koi pond, views of Himeji Castle (very short walking distance between the garden and castle), and roofed corridor (which will be featured in future shorts). To put it simply, it was the garden of my dreams.
The garden was constructed in 1992 at the exact site of Nishi-Oyashiki (Lord’s West Residence). The area of this garden is about 3.5 ha and was built on the archaelogically excavated site of samurai houses and roads. It was made using the gardening techniques of the Edo period (1600-1860) as a model.
This was filmed by an iPhone 13. Hope you enjoy!
Note: The music in this video is an excerpt from Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3 played by Rousseau. All credits go to the owner(s). Here’s the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IBEQN4Ru6es
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