This is one of the Daimyo gardens from the early Edo Period along with Koishikawa Koraku-en. It was created when the first house in Edo for the Okubo Family, who was a lord of the Odawara Domain, was constructed during the Genroku Era. It was taken over by the Shimizu Family, then by the Kishu Tokugawa Family. The Department of the Imperial Household owned the garden in 1875 and it became Shiba Rikyu (the Imperial villa in Shiba) the following year. It was designated as a National Place of Scenic Beauty by the Cultural Properties Protection Law in 1979.
cultural property : historic sites and places of scenic beauty as natural monuments
type : places of scenic beauty
1-chōme-4-1 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tōkyō-to 105-0022
Tel：03-3434-4029
Home page : https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/park/kyu-shiba-rikyu/index.html
Okubo Tadatomo, a lord of Odawara and a member of the Shogun’s Council of Elders, received a reclaimed land by the ocean from the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1678. The garden was constructed along with the first house in Edo for the Odawara Domain on that land during the Genroku Era. Gardeners were summoned from Odawara to create a garden in the house and it was named “Rakuju-en.” The owners changed several times from the end of the Edo Period to the beginning of the Meiji Era. The Department of the Imperial Household owned the garden in 1875 and it became Shiba Rikyu (the Imperial villa in Shiba) the following year.
The main portion of the garden is a large pond with winding shorelines including capes and coves. There is an island in the middle of the pond and there are bridges on both the east and west sides of the island. Traditional landscaping methods are used in various ways such as stone arrangements simulating the Horai mountain on Nakajima (the central island), landscape with a Tsukiyama (artificial hill), and the ways the stones are arranged and the bridges are built.
This is one of the remarkable gardens that demonstrate the landscaping methods of Daimyo gardens from the Edo Period.