This garden was made in the valley called San’notani which faces the Tokyo Bay by Hara Sankei, Yokohama’s number-one businessman in modern times. There is an outer garden which opened to the public in 1906 and an inner garden which was used as a private garden. It is famous for an amazing harmony of historical buildings collected from Kyoto and Kamakura and the natural view from season to season.
cultural property : historic sites and places of scenic beauty as natural monuments
type : places of scenic beauty
58-1 Honmokusannotani, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 231-0824
Tel：045-621-0634
Home page : www.sankeien.or.jp
The garden was made in the area with a varied topography with hills and valleys in the southeast of Yokohama City by Hara Sankei (born Tomitaro), Yokohama’s number-one businessman in modern times. Sankei inherited the family estate in 1899 and started the construction with his own ideas shortly thereafter. In 1902, Kakusho-kaku was newly added, and Kyu Tenzui-ji Juto Oido (a protective structure for the old Tenzui-ji grave tablet) and Kangetsu-an, a tearoom, were relocated. Their gardener was sent to various gardens in the Kansai region to observe and study in 1905. The outer garden, which we can see today, was completed in the following year and opened to the public in May 1906. It was a landmark effort to open a private garden publicly at that time. The construction continued even after the opening and was finally completed in 1922 with a relocation of Choshu-kaku. It is very rare for a large garden in a big city to have the urban characteristics of the modernized city in the surrounding area mostly invisible from the garden.
Some of the most scenic spots in this garden are: a large pond, Rinshun-kaku and Choshu-kaku. On the opposite side of the large pond, there is a three-storied pagoda of former Tomyo-ji on top of the hill. There is a pond in front of Rinshun-kaku and the reflection of the building with a green hill in its background is beautiful. An exquisite contrast of Choshu-kaku and a stream bordered by lush foliage is also remarkable.