Nara · Nara Park
Isuien Garden
Isuien is two gardens from different periods, and since 1975 it has been registered as a national Place of Scenic Beauty. The front garden was built in the 70s of the 17th century by Kiyosumi Dosei, a Nara linen merchant, as a villa for drinking green tea. The back garden was built in the Meiji period by the businessman Seki Tojiro, with an artificial hill and a pond, and it uses Mount Wakakusa, Mount Kasuga, Mount Mikasa and the South Gate of Todai-ji as borrowed scenery.
In 1939 the garden was bought by Nakamura Junsaku, a shipping businessman, and it opened to the public in 1958. The ticket includes the Neiraku Museum inside it, with more than 2,000 items from the Nakamura family collection that survived the bombing of Kobe in 1945: bronzes and seals from ancient China, Korean ceramics and Japanese tea utensils. The display changes.
In the back garden, at the edge of the pond, lies a stone that according to the garden is part of the foundation stone of the Western Pagoda of Todai-ji, which burned down. Abalone shells sit on the thatched roofs to scare off crows that come to take the thatch. In the Hyoshintei teahouse, built in the Meiji period with timber from Shin-Yakushi-ji temple, the windows are still thin hand-blown glass.
Good to know
- At the Sanshu restaurant, in the Sanshutei house facing the front garden, the main dish is rice and barley with grated yam (mugitoro), ¥2,200, and matcha is ¥1,200. Its hours differ from the garden's. Matcha is also served at Hyoshintei, facing the back garden.
- The garden is not wheelchair accessible, and the stepping stones on the paths are worn and rounded. If you walk with a cane, you are asked to check in at the ticket office.
- You may not bring food into the garden. In bad weather or during work in the garden it may close without notice, fully or in part.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Isuien Garden.
- HereIsuien Garden
- 1 min
Yoshikien Garden More to see
A Nara Prefecture garden right next door, on the site where a sub-temple of Kofuku-ji once stood. A pond garden, a moss garden and a flower garden for the tea ceremony, with Mount Kasuga and Mount Wakakusa as borrowed scenery. The current garden and building date from 1919. Free since 2020.
- ~4 min
Yumekaze Hiroba Street
A complex of restaurants and shops at the entrance to the park, near the road to Todai-ji: soba, kamameshi, ramen, Japanese sweets, ice cream, and also a mont-bell shop. Each shop keeps its own hours, and most close at 17:00 or 18:00.
- ~4 min
Izasa Chaya, Yumekaze Hiroba Food
A branch of the Izasa kakinoha-zushi chain at Yumekaze Hiroba. On the first floor kakinoha-zushi is made and sold, and on the second floor there is a restaurant with a view.
- ~4 min
BAN INOUE, Yumekaze Hiroba Clothes and crafts
A shop of the BAN INOUE brand: clothing and home goods in linen and mosquito-net fabric, and a cafe with sweets and spiced afternoon tea inspired by the Silk Road.
- ~4 min
Shunka Manyo Tenpyoan, Yumekaze Hiroba Cafe
A shop and cafe for Japanese sweets at Yumekaze Hiroba, with a seating area.
- ~12 min
Higashimuki Shopping Street Street
A covered shopping street running south from Kintetsu-Nara Station to Sanjo-dori. You walk through it on the way to the station.
More in Nara Park
Appears in: Nara: the deer, the Great Buddha and the lantern shrine