One of Japan's greatest landscape gardens, Ritsurin-koen was developed over more than a century by the lords of Takamatsu domain, completed around 1745. The garden covers 75 hectares and is divided into six ponds and thirteen hills, with Shiun-zan providing a dramatic natural backdrop through the technique known as shakkei — borrowed scenery. Every path offers a new composed view, and the design rewards slow wandering. The southern garden, the older and more refined section, is the highlight. An attached folk craft museum (Sanuki Folkcraft Museum) displays traditional crafts of Kagawa Prefecture.
Open daily; admission charged. A short tram ride or taxi from Takamatsu Station, or 15 minutes on the Kotoden Kotohira Line to Ritsurin-koen Kitaguchi Station.