A tranquil promenade-style garden with a pond

The garden’s old trees and plants

The garden’s old trees include a 400-year-old Korean pine tree, a Chinese trumpet creeper, maples and cypress trees.

In spring, skunk cabbage, horse chestnut, Japanese holly, Fastigiate yew pine and Japanese globe flowers bloom, and in early summer, irises, yuzuriha (false daphne), Japanese winterberry and Japanese ternstroemia bear leaves and bloom in succession.

In autumn, quercus myrsinaefolia, aloes-wood and Japanese ardisia bear delightful fruit. As well, the leaves of winged spindle trees and Enkianthus turn red, and sweet osmanthus trees become fragrant.

When the weather becomes colder, osmanthus ilicifolius and camellia sasanqua bloom, adding color to the snowy garden.

The garden’s style

The main garden

This is the focal point of the entire garden.
When viewed from the front of the garden, we can see a pond in the shape of the character for “water” and two pairs of waterfalls to the east and west in the cliff area. The undulating landscape is like a picture drawn on a scroll.
The Saisetsu-tei tea house is at the top of the cliff area.

Oribe-style stone lantern for crypto-Christians

The crypto-Christian lantern was built by Wakita Naokata, a Kaga Clan retainer who was a crypto-Christian. It was built by the clan's stonemasons using blue Tomuro stone.
The overall shape is like a cross, and an image of the Virgin Mary with joined hands is engraved at the bottom of the lantern.

Korean pine tree

There is a vigorous Korean pine tree in the top section of the garden. A Chinese trumpet creeper, the seeds of which were a gift from Omatsu, the lawful wife of the first lord Maeda Toshiie, grows at the bottom of the pine tree. It can be seen from the commanding height of Kenroku-en Garden.

Saisetsu-tei

This tea house was constructed under the direction of Senso Soshitsu, the founder of the Urasenke tea ceremony school.
There are two entrances: the right side is for higher-ranked persons, and the left side is a small entrance (nigiriguchi) through which guests enter on their knees.
The tea room has one tatami mat and two daime-tatami mats, and the alcove post is made of red pine.
The tea house features an atmosphere of simplicity and quietude.

East waterfall

The waterfall flows down from the pond on the upper level to the lower level in three stages.
The fact that the pond’s water is drawn from the stream of Kenroku-en Garden shows that the lord of the Kaga clan had a great deal of trust in the Wakita family.

Ponds with colonies of skunk cabbage

Skunk cabbage grows naturally in the two ponds on the upper and lower levels of the garden. Generally, skunk cabbage grows on high-elevation marshland; it is rare for it to grow in low-elevation urban areas.