We have enjoyed visiting many beautiful gardens on our trips to Japan, and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is one of the largest and most diverse that we’ve visited. Its 144 acres of park space includes three distinct areas: a landscape garden, a Japanese traditional garden, and a formal garden. The paths through the park wend their way through these different gardens with many lovely highlights to enjoy along the way.

This land was given to the Naito family, vassals of the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa during the Edo era. In the late nineteenth century, the area became the Naito Shinuku Experimental Station, which focused on promoting modern agriculture in Japan. Later in the twentieth century, it was redesigned as a national garden, open to the enjoyment of the public.

The first area we saw was the landscape garden, which features tall trees with large open spaces in between. In this part of the park, there were a good number of people gathered sitting on the lawn in those open spaces, enjoying the beautiful day. There were so many people in the park, but it’s so big, it didn’t feel overly crowded.

The second distinct garden we saw was the Japanese traditional garden. A pond system traverses the entire southern end of Shinjuku Gyoen National garden. Two tea houses and a pavilion nestle near the ponds. There are also many Japanese maple trees in this area, a few of which were beginning to show their autumn colors during our visit.

The timing of our visit also coincided with the Chrysanthemum Exhibition, which is held every year in November. We saw fabulous displays of colorfully arranged chrysanthemums throughout the park.

There were many spectacularly tall trees scattered throughout the garden. The guide map points out many “historical giant trees,” including a tulip tree, London plane trees, a Japanese elm, and a Himalayan cedar, among others. Fallen leaves scattered the ground beneath the trees, and some of the trees were turning color for fall.

The final distinct garden we visited was the formal garden. This includes a huge rectangular array of rose bushes, which were all in bloom! They were lovely and smelled amazing. Next to the rose bushes was the avenue of sycamore trees. Their multicolored bark and yellowing, falling leaves made for a beautiful place to walk and kick through the leaves at your feet.

We highly recommend visiting the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for its varied garden experiences and beautiful scenery. We loved visiting in the fall, and look forward to discovering the highlights of other seasons in the future.

Google Maps Link: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden