Ohori Park Garden in Spring

 

Day 74 I stayed in Fukuoka and rested up to try and kicj a cold or flu bug that was ailing me..... but going stir crazy i my room I tooke a gentle exploration around the Ohri Park area...

The Japanese garden in the park was built in 1984 to celebrate the opening of the park.

It was designed by Nakane Kinsaku who is probably most famous for designing the gardens at the Adachi Museum in Shimane.

The largest section is a pond garden that with three islands  is possibly modelled on the large pond of Ohori Park itself.

Ohori Park was modelled on the West Lake in China, at least according to most postwar sources. Earlier sources make no mention of it.

The garden has a teahouse designed by Masao Nakamura.

The teahouse is rarely open so I have yet to see the assocaited roji, teahouse garden.

There is also a smaller karesansui garden with stoms from Miyazaki.

As is often the case, while I was visiting a young couple were having their wedding photos taken.

It was a spring day and overcast. Photos from the garden on a sunny day in Autumn can be found in this earlier post.

The previous post in this series on the Kyushu Pigrimage was on Chinkaiseki Hachimangu Shrine.

Keishu-en Garden

Keishu-en

Keishi-en is a fairly modern Japanese garden attached to Yoko Museum, a small gallery specializing in Chinese ceramics and art. The garden uses Mifuneyama as "borrowed scenery" behind the garden. It was designed by Kinsaku Nakane whose most well known garden is the one at Adachi Museum in Shimane.

There is a large pond filled with koi, behind which is a karesansui garden with many azalea bushes which bloom in the late spring. Unusually the upper part of the garden is a tea plantation with rows of tea plants following the contours.

The path around the garden passes over a bridge by a small waterfall and also leads to a teahouse where you can get traditional tea and sweets.

Most visitors to the area visit the Mifuneyama Rakuen Garden which is very close by and also uses Mifuneyama as a backdrop, but Keishu-en is well worth a visit, especially if you appreciate the work of  Kinsaku Nakane

Buy dokudami tea from Japan