Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

What to see

• Formal garden: a symmetrical design with about 160 plane trees in rows and rose beds of about 100 varieties.
• Landscape garden: open lawns with tall tulip trees and Himalayan cedars, ringed by cherry trees.
• Japanese garden: a stroll garden around a pond, where the chrysanthemum exhibition is held in November.
• Cherry trees: about 70 kinds and 900 trees; the earliest bloom from February and Somei-Yoshino in late March.
• Greenhouse: a glass house just inside the Okido Gate, growing over 1,000 kinds of plants.

Seasons

• Cherry blossoms run from February to mid-April; the Jugatsu-zakura blooms in autumn and spring.
• In autumn the plane-tree avenue turns bright gold.
• The chrysanthemum exhibition runs 1–15 November every year in the Japanese garden.

History

It began in 1590, when Tokugawa Ieyasu gave the land to his retainer Naito Kiyonari. Through the Edo period it was the garden of the Naito family's estate. Most of it burned in air raids in the Second World War; it was restored and opened to the public in 1949 as a national garden.

Getting there

Five minutes on foot from Exit 1 of Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station (Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line) to the Shinjuku Gate; Exit 2 leads to the Okido Gate, also five minutes. From the south exit of Shinjuku Station (JR, Keio, Odakyu) it is ten minutes to the Shinjuku Gate, and five minutes from Exit E-5 of Shinjuku-sanchome Station (Fukutoshin Line).

Address：11 Naito-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Directions in Google Maps →Official website →

Around Shinjuku

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Nearby sights

• Hanazono ShrineZero minutes on foot from Exit E2 of Shinjuku-sanchome Station
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observatories10 min walk from Shinjuku Station