Kokura Castle Garden

Japanese Castles: Kokura Castle Garden 小倉城

Entrance to the Kokura Castle Garden

Kokura Castle Garden is located adjacent to Kokura Castle with the entrance being across from the Yasaka Shrine Torii. It is a reconstruction of the original garden and is not very large but is a quiet oasis from the busy streets nearby.

It was originally built for the Hosokawa clan but the Ogasawara clan took over and controlled the castle for most of the Edo Period. The famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi almost certainly spent time enjoying the garden while he lived here.

It is a stroll type garden with a path going around a small pond ( kaiyu-shiki-teien). It is not a big garden, with no particularly  outstanding features, and is probably best enjoyed in summer with the lush, green setting or in spring for the cherry trees.

Overlooking the garden is a large, traditional Shoin-style mansion with a large veranda projecting out over the pond. From here you can see the whole garden.

While visiting the garden you can take part in a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. The frothy, whisked, matcha green tea is served with a seasonal sweet.

On weekdays the cost is 500 yen per person, and on weekends and holidays only 300 yen, the difference being the size and quality of the sweet. The experience on the weekends and holidays also includes watching the tea being prepared. It is called a Ryureuseki style of tea ceremony and is particularly for those who cannot sit seiza, the traditional, formal seating style, as there are low chairs and tables. The Tea Ceremony is available from 10 am to 4 pm.

Kokura Castle Garden

Interior of the traditional mansion overlooking the garden with tatami floors, shoji walls and fusama sliding doors

There is a small museum attached to the garden with two galleries, one showing the permanent exhibition and one showing special exhibitions. The permanent exhibition is themed "Manners", due no doubt to the Hosokawa clan, who built the castle, having a reputation as a cultured family. The changing exhibitions are more diverse, the one showing when I visited included scroll paintings and some very old Buddhist statues.

For several nights in October the garden is illuminated and open later.

Access - getting to Kokura Castle

Kokura Castle Garden

1-2 Jonai, Kokurakita-ku

Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka 803-0813

Tel: 0935 82 2747

Hours

Open 9 am to 5 pm (Until 6 pm from April to October). Open every day including New Year, though the museum may close when exhibitions are changed.

Kokura Castle is located in Kokura city in Kitakyushu.

From JR Nishi-Kokura Station, the grounds of the castle are a 5-minute walk. Alternatively walk 10 minutes from JR Kokura Station. A 700 yen ticket allows entrance to the castle, gardens and Matsumoto Seicho Museum.

Kokura Castle Garden Museum

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