Sankeien Garden, in the southern Honmoku district of the city, is one of the most refined traditional gardens in the Kanto region. It was created by the silk merchant Tomitaro Hara (known as Sankei) in the early twentieth century, and its centrepiece is a collection of historic buildings relocated from Kyoto, Kamakura, and other parts of Japan — a three-storied pagoda from Kyoto's Tomyoji, a farmhouse from Gassho-zukuri country, tea houses, a villa, and more — set into a landscape of ponds, hills, and mature trees.
The garden covers 175,000 square metres and divides into an outer garden, open to the public throughout the year, and an inner garden with the most important historic structures. Both reward slow exploration: the paths wind through different moods of the landscape, from open lakeside views to enclosed groves where the only sound is water.
Cherry blossom season brings crowds but also genuine beauty, and the garden is also lovely in late autumn when the maples turn. It is easy to spend two or three hours here and feel entirely removed from the busy city outside the walls.