Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

This is one of the remaining feudal lord gardens in Tokyo from the early Edo Period (mid-17th century). It is a circular landscape garden with a spacious pond at its center. The main features of the garden are a pond surface that reddens with the setting sun, and valuable stones such as nebukawa-ishi (pyroxene andesite) from Odawara and kuroboku-seki (dark-colored basaltic pumice) from Fuji. Other features include the karetaki, or dry waterfall, denoting cascades over a gorge stream; a stone bridge arching over the pond's Nakajima island resembling one over the Baidi causeway at West Lake in Hangzhou, China; and notable rock formations including Mount Penlai, the mythological Chinese mountain of immortality, recreated on Nakajima island. The West Lake causeways have been motifs for poems and paintings since ancient times. This garden is also a popular place to enjoy plum blossoms in spring and reddish maple leaves in autumn. In 1979, the garden was designated a Place of Scenic Beauty under the Act to Protect Cultural Properties. A one-minute walk from Hamamatsu-cho Station on both the Yamanote and Keihin Tohoku Lines.