Tokugawaen

Tokugawaen

Tokugawaen (徳川園) in Tokugawacho, Higashi Ward, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, is a garden linked to the Owari Tokugawa family whose Black Gate of 1899, gatehouse range, walls and well of around 1900, Sozanso of 1937 and former Hosa Bunko repository of 1935 were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on October 7, 2014 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). All six are owned by Nagoya City.

According to the Aichi Prefecture tourism site, Tokugawaen began as the Ozone residence where Tokugawa Mitsutomo, the second lord of Owari, retired, and became a residence of the Owari Tokugawa family in 1889. The family gave it to Nagoya City in 1931 and it opened to the public the next year; after wartime damage it reopened in 2004 after restoration.

The Six Structures

The Black Gate, built as the main gate of the family's Nagoya residence, is a broad zelkova gate, joined by a wall to a gatehouse range that served as a gate lodge. The walls run 84 metres along the west of the estate with different finishes along the way, and the well has a granite curb and an iron pulley pierced with cherry blossoms (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Sozanso was built of fine Kiso timber as the Japanese wing of the guest house of the Nagoya Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition and moved here afterwards, and the former Hosa Bunko repository, two storehouses joined into one, long held the books handed down in the Owari Tokugawa family (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Each structure is described on its own page.

Visiting

According to the Aichi Prefecture tourism site, Tokugawaen is open from 9:30 to 17:30 (last entry 17:00), closed on Mondays (open on public holidays) and from December 29 to January 1; admission is 300 yen for adults and free for junior high school students and younger; tel. 052-935-8988.