Japan Kagoshima Sengan-en gardens

Senganen Garden, also known as Isoteien, is a Japanese style landscape garden along the coast north of downtown Kagoshima. One of the garden's most striking feature is its use of Sakurajima and Kagoshima Bay as borrowed scenery. The garden also includes small ponds, streams, shrines and a bamboo grove. Senganen was constructed in 1658 by the wealthy Shimazu Clan, one of the most powerful feudal clans during the Edo Period (1603-1867). The Shimazu ruled the Satsuma domain (present day Kagoshima) for almost 700 years until the end of the feudal age in 1868. They continued to be influential into the modern era as some of the earliest adopters of Western science and technology. At the center of the garden stands the Iso Residence. The residence was originally built in 1658 along with the rest of the garden, but the current building mostly dates back to a reconstruction of the mid 1880s. After the end of the feudal age, the Iso Residence became the main residence of the Shimazu family, and its rooms are preserved in the way they were used in the 1890s. The interior of the residence can only be seen on a paid tour that includes tea and a snack at the end.

Click on the picture to get a larger version

At the entrance we were met by this nice lady and the first look at what were in the garden

Resturant		The Iso Residence

Nicely cut trees		Main gate

Then walking around in the huge, nice garden, looking at what it had to show us

< Back to the index