The Koishikawa Botanical Garden is officially called the “Botanical Garden attached to the Graduate School of Science of the Tokyo University” and one might think that because it is a research facility, it is just a row of stoic specimen plants, but that is actually not the case.
In the central plaza-like garden area, there are many giant Cherry blossom trees planted so that visitors can relax and enjoy viewing cherry blossoms, and the Maple tree promenade by the greenhouse is sure to be a spectacular sight during the autumn foliage season.
I visited at the end of September, and here is a view that is unique to this season.
The late arrival of fall and a week later than the equinoxes brought the blooming of the red spider lily, which were a fiery red cluster of flowers that delighted my eyes.
It was a little heavy for my sore shoulder, but I was really glad I had brought my Leica 50-200mm telephoto lens.
I’ve noticed that the hibiscus attracts butterflies and ants. Does it produce very sweet nectar?
Since the screen becoming full of bright red, a slightly different color should be used to change mood.
The neat white flowers of the Huyo were found in the Yakuen Preservatory. Commemorating the botanical garden’s predecessor, the herb garden under the Edo Shogunate’s orders, more than 100 varieties of medicinal herbs are still cultivated there today.
One of the few flowers I can identify, the Cosmos, is a beautiful flower at Shibata Memorial Hall (see the official website above for more information). I don’t see any necessity for it to be here, so I think they planted it purely for the pleasure of visitors’ eyes.
Now, I have to come out here about a serious mistake.
This was my first visit here, and I actually returned without having visited nearly half of the garden without realizing it. Before I could determine the end of the pathway, I somehow turned around and thought, “Is this the end of the pathway?” When I looked back at the official park map later, I found that the northern half (the left half of the park map) was still “unexplored”.
As usual, I was either careless or embarrassed. I will have to make a revenge visit soon.
So, I left the Garden early due to a misunderstanding.
On the way home, I stopped by Denzu-in Temple, so I’ll upload a photo of it.
Sorry for the photo that has nothing to do with Denzu-in.
I happened to be in a residential neighborhood along the way and saw a house with a beautiful potted White Manjushage plant in bloom, so I took this photo. The contrast with the Red ones in the botanical garden was also an interesting sight.
Here is the magnificent gate of Denzu-in Temple.
The temple is closely related to the Tokugawa family, as it is the family temple of Oodai no Kata (Tokugawa Ieyasu’s mother) and Sen Hime (Tokugawa Hidetada’s daughter), but as a Shinsengumi freak, the first thing that comes to mind is that this is the place where the Shinsengumi was formed. This temple was the place where, in response to Hachiro Kiyokawa’s call, the Shieikan party under Isami Kondo and Kamo Serizawa gathered to form the Roshitai team, which later became the parent organization of the Shinsengumi.
This was the starting point for the young guys who headed for Kyoto to make a name for themselves during the turmoil at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
It is difficult to remember the old days from the appearance of the magnificent gate and main hall, which seem to have been rebuilt in recent years, but it is still quite impressive.
I am sorry that my mind and eyes have wandered so far from where I was talking about.
This is the Koishikawa Botanical Garden and Denzu-in Temple.
