26/02/2014

Mukojima Hyakka-en Garden

A small and peaceful garden for plum blossoms in Tokyo

Por Manish Prabhune

Community writer

Mukojima Hyakka-en is kind of a well hidden place in Tokyo's Sumida ward, and crowds here are relatively thin which actually enhances the flower viewing (hanami) experience.

The garden is said to be the only surviving flower garden from the Edo Period. An entrance fee of 150 yen is charged.

Apart from plum trees there are a lot of other flowers which bloom across all four seasons. One more view of the blossoms, which is partly still in the buds stage, just set to bloom very soon. The blossoms can be enjoyed until around the 10th of March every year.

There is a Japanese style tatami room inside the park, which can be reserved by paying a special entrance fee of 3,700 yen. From the outside I could see some people in the room, wearing kimono and attending a tea ceremony, a very traditional Japanese experience.

Walking towards the garden through the quiet lanes just one kilometer away from Asakusa, the Ume-Matsuri (Plum Festival) banners in Japanese were quite prominently displayed.

Tokyo Skytree in the backdrop from Mukojima Hyakka-en. I guess I should come back for a twilight scene on a clear blue sky day.

I was surprised to see this stone pillar of Nihonbashi; the characters on the stone are supposedly of the last shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

The flower tunnel had no flowers in February. This bamboo tunnel is best viewed in September with various flower creepers which decorate the long winding path.

Plum blossoms in late February and early March precede the more mainstream and famous cherry blossom season. Personally I prefer the deep pink color of the plum blossoms as opposed to the faint pink cherry blossoms. There are other locations like the Kameido Tenjin where you can enjoy great plum blossoms in the big city and this year I found Mukojima Hyakka-en which is close to the Tokyo Skytree, and it is a small and a quiet place with around 60-70 plum trees.

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Manish Prabhune

Por Manish Prabhune

Community writer

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