Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a staking area

May 10, 2022

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, an imperial garden hidden in the center of Tokyo. Today, it is a national park combining the largest Japanese garden and Western garden in Tokyo. The famous cherry blossom viewing spots in spring, maple, red and autumn chrysanthemum in autumn, have different styles in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Why is such an imperial garden related to horse staking? Maybe they are also occupying civilian land.

Japan's Golden Week holiday is over, and the epidemic has eased relatively this year. The inter-county ban of the previous two years will no longer be implemented this year, and the number of tourists seems to have returned to Thailand. However, our family is more conservative than the Japanese, and we did not plan to travel far this year. It's just that the weather was so good during the holiday that I couldn't suppress my restless heart, so I chose a day trip to "Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden" nearby.

(Japan ’s Golden Week falls roughly at the end of April and the beginning of May every year. Due to the clustering of various festivals at this time, it is easy to form a continuous holiday of about a week, so it is called this.)

During the golden week, I picked a good day with a clear sky and arrived at the destination soon. Before entering the park, I needed to solve the problem of lunch. During the holidays, business is booming at nearby stores, and there are long queues everywhere. After searching for a long time, I found a tempura with fewer queues. Although there was no prior investigation, I just entered because there were few people. It was unexpectedly delicious. The stores that survived here are indeed capable.

Freshly fried crispy tempura set meal at 天ぷらKushi Yamamotoya

After filling up the stomach, before entering the park, the cake shop that Mr. Taizu has been thinking about for a long time is also nearby, and he went to the "pilgrimage" by the way. It seems that when our family travels, sightseeing is the second priority, and the pursuit of food is the focus. XD

Please see the photos directly for the beauty of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, and tell us the origin of this royal garden below.

The Tamamo Pond in the Japanese garden that the Naito family has survived to this day, and the minaret in the distance is the NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building

Double row of century-old sycamore tree in French garden

Nakano Pond near the old imperial pavilion

The old imperial pavilion that escaped the Tokyo air raid is also known as the "Taiwan Pavilion"

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, an imperial garden hidden in the center of Tokyo. Today, it is the largest national park in Tokyo combining Japanese-style gardens and Western-style gardens, covering an area of more than 180,000 ping and a circumference of 3.5Km. It was once requisitioned by the royal family as the imperial garden of the emperor, hence the name Imperial Garden . Before this place became the Imperial Garden, it was the samurai house of the Naito family in Edo (Tokyo), the lord of the Takato Domain (now Ina City, Nagano Prefecture) for a long time. In other words, most of the large green spaces in the 23 wards of Tokyo today originate from the legacy of the samurai houses in the Edo period.

The story begins more than 400 years ago. Tokugawa Ieyasu was forced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to move his territory to Kanto. Before moving, he first ordered Naito Kiyomasa (the master of the second-generation expedition general Tokugawa Hidetada, also known as the so-called Prince Taifu. ) went to Edo to build a castle town, and was rewarded for leading the leading troops for meritorious deeds. This reward is accompanied by a legend. One day, Naito accompanied Ieyasu on a hunt. They rode westward to a wasteland. Ieyasu promised him how many circles a horse could make, and the land would be given to him. As a result, the horse traveled south to Sentsuya Valley, west to Yoyogi, north to Okubo, and east to Yotsuya. It doesn't matter if you don't know these place names, as long as you know that the modern area is about 220,000 ping . The base of the Taipei Arena is about 6,000 square meters, and about 36 arena can be squeezed into it. This white horse died of exhaustion after this trip. In order to threaten the white horse to encircle this large-scale foundation for their family, the Naito family specially set up a horse tomb in the Naito Shrine.

The horse mound next to the shrine access road (relocated) / Sagamidai Public Hall

The name of Shinjuku , not only in Japan, but also abroad, has a great relationship with the Naito family. In the early days of Edo, starting from Nihonbashi (the starting point of Japanese streets) in all directions, a post station similar to that in ancient China would be set up not far away, which is called a place in Japanese. The accommodation to the west originally had Takaido , but it was too far from Nihonbashi, so a businessman from Asakusa wanted to set up a new accommodation in the middle and chose the land of the Naito family. After several twists and turns, it was finally established, and the place was called Naito Shinjuku . At that time, the prosperous area of Naito Shinjuku was not the same as it is now. It was located in the area of the current Shinjuku-sanchome crossroad, and the current Shinjuku Station was built outside the village at that time.

In this way, the name of this royal garden was fixed as "Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden"!

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Map/Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Official Website

Let's talk a little more, our family will choose "Shinjuku Gyoen Garden" to travel, because we can enter the park " free " on the day, and 2 adults can save 1,000 yen. There will be free openings on several special days throughout the year. Japan's current prices are increasing day by day, and you can save a little bit.

2022/05/10 posted.

Original link to Japan behind-the-scenes observation