Nara · Nara ParkNo.1243★★Open in map →

Isuien Garden

cultureOff the trail — and worth it

A walled stroll garden between Kofukuji and Todaiji, made of an Edo half and a Meiji half joined by running water. The back garden is composed so that Todaiji's south gate and Wakakusayama sit inside the view.

FromOsaka-Namba Station
~1 hrKintetsu, frequent
Get off atKintetsu Nara Station (Kintetsu Nara Line)
On foot
Isuien Garden

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is not an unknown place — it is a signposted stop in the middle of Nara Park. What it has is a wall and a gate. The crowd heading for the Great Buddha passes on the other side of it, and the same hills and the same temple roof arrive here as composition rather than as something to queue for. The catch is the calendar: Tuesdays are closed, and the garden shuts altogether for maintenance in late September and around the New Year.

Where it is

32 more notes in Nara · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Sanshuteithe thatched building at the front garden, moved onto the site in the Edo period
Teishukenthe small hall beside Sanshutei, rebuilt once since it first went up
Hyoshinteia shoin-style tea room facing the pond of the back garden
The borrowed viewthe roof of Todaiji's Nandaimon gate, with Wakakusayama and Mikasayama stacked behind it
Neiraku MuseumEast Asian antiquities gathered by the Nakamura family, covered by the garden ticket

How to actually get there

Osaka-Namba Station → Kintetsu Nara Station (Kintetsu Nara Line rapid express, direct, no change).
Kintetsu Nara Station → Isuien (walk about 15 min east through Nara Park, or take the city loop bus to Kencho-higashi).
Front garden → back garden → the Neiraku Museum, all on one ticket.
Leave by the same gate and cross to Todaiji's Nandaimon, a few minutes east.

Kintetsu Nara Line, direct from Osaka-Namba: Osaka-Namba Station →(Kintetsu Nara Line rapid express, direct with no change)→ Kintetsu Nara Station, then about 15 minutes on foot east through Nara Park. Trains run frequently through the day, so there is no timetable to plan around.
Return from Kintetsu Nara Station: Walk back the same way and take the Kintetsu Nara Line to Osaka-Namba, or change at Yamato-Saidaiji for Kyoto. Services are frequent through the afternoon, and the garden closes long before the last trains, so the return needs no planning.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Isuien stands on the strip of land between Kofukuji and Todaiji, one street back from the main park route. It is a pond-and-stroll garden made of two halves from different eras, joined later into a single walk. The front half began as the villa of a merchant who dealt in Nara-zarashi, the bleached hemp cloth the city was known for. The back half was laid out by a Meiji businessman as a hill-and-pond garden for tea and poetry gatherings. Water runs from the front through to the back, and the Neiraku Museum stands inside the same wall on the same ticket.

How to enjoy it

The gate opens at 9:30, the last ticket goes at 16:00 and the garden closes at 16:30, so this is a morning or early-afternoon stop rather than something to add on after Todaiji. Tuesday is the closed day, shifting to the next weekday when a Tuesday falls on a holiday. Late September and the turn of the year are maintenance periods when it does not open at all.

Background & history

The front garden dates from the Enpo years of the early Edo period, the 1670s, when Kiyosumi Dosei, a dealer in Nara-zarashi cloth, moved the thatched Sanshutei onto the site and put up the Teishuken beside it. Two hundred years later a Meiji businessman, Seki Tojiro, laid out the back garden for tea and poetry, drawing the eastern hills into it. The Nakamura family, shipowners, later bought the property and joined the two halves; the collection they had built became the Neiraku Museum. The garden is designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty.

Before you go

Cash: Admission when checked was 1,200 yen for adults, 500 yen for high-school and university students and 300 yen for primary and junior-high pupils, and the same ticket covers the Neiraku Museum. There is no car park on site.
Good to know: Closed on Tuesdays, moving to the following weekday when the Tuesday is a public holiday. The garden also closes for maintenance in late September and from the end of December into mid-January. Food brought in from outside is not allowed.
Another way: From JR Nara Station or Kintetsu Nara Station, the Nara Kotsu city loop bus runs to Kencho-higashi, which leaves only a short walk along the road to the gate.
After you get off: From Kintetsu Nara Station, walk east along Noborioji past the prefectural office to the Kencho-higashi crossing, then turn north into Suimoncho. The gate is a short way along on the right, about 15 minutes from the station.