This is one of the outstanding Daimyo gardens from the Edo Period and it has a pond with an inflow of the tide and two areas designated for duck hunting. The atmosphere of the pond changes as the tide turns. This is the only existing garden in Japan with a pond using the ocean tide. It was designated as a Special Historic Site and a Special Place of Scenic Beauty by the Cultural Properties Protection Law in 1952.
cultural property : historic sites and places of scenic beauty as natural monuments
type : places of special scenic beauty, special historical sites
1-1 Hamarikyūteien, Chūō-ku, Tōkyō-to 104-0046
Tel：03-3541-0200
Home page : https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/park/hama-rikyu/index.html
This is one of the outstanding Daimyo gardens from the Edo Period and it has a pond with an inflow of the tide and two areas designated for duck hunting. The atmosphere of the pond changes as the tide turns. This is the only garden with a pond using the ocean tide among all remaining Daimyo gardens in Tokyo. There was a vast field of reed until the beginning of the Edo Period (the Kan’ei Era) and it was used for falconry for the Shogunate. Matsudaira Tsunashige who was a prime minister of Kofu built a villa called Kofu Hama Yashiki in 1654. It later passed into the Shogunate’s possession when Ienobu was the 6th Shogun and it was renamed as Hama Goten.
The north side and the south side of the garden have different styles. The south side is centered around a large pond which draws seawater. There are paths and bridges around the pond so that visitors can enjoy strolling and admiring beautiful scenery from different viewpoints around the pond either by the pond or on the bridge over the water. There are duck hunting grounds in both the east and west sides of the garden. In those days, visitors could see Odaiba and the mountains of Boso in the southeast and Mt. Fuji in the west in the distance, but now high-rise buildings on the waterfront of the Tokyo Bay are the backdrop of the garden.