North Gifu · Seki ItadoriNo.766★★★Open in map →

Monet's Pond

— Gifu's nameless spring-fed pond

natureThe classic — done right

A nameless irrigation pond in the hills north of Seki, fed by spring water clear enough to see the bottom. Water lilies, spatterdock and koi float over it, and the resemblance to Monet's canvases gave it the name it now goes by.

FromMonet's Pond-mae bus stop
~2 min on footCommunity bus, then 150 m
Get off atMonet's Pond-mae (Itadori Fureai community bus)
On foot
Monet's Pond

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Nemichi ShrineHmori1960.earthbound / CC BY-SA 4.0

The water's edgethe first full view of the pond, straight in from the roadside car park
Water lilies and spatterdockthe two planted species that hold the surface, one of them the smaller yellow kohone
The koicarp seen from directly above through water clear enough to flatten the depth
Nemichi Shrinethe shrine the pond sits beside, which the prefecture suggests visiting while you are here
Flower Park Itadorithe nearby flower park the official guide tells drivers to set as their satnav target

How to actually get there

JR Gifu Station → Gifu Bus Itadori line → Horado Kiwi Plaza.
Change to the Itadori Fureai community bus → Monet's Pond-mae.
150 m on foot to the pond, then walk the bank once before photographing anything.
Visit Nemichi Shrine beside the water and return to the same stop.

Two buses from JR Gifu Station: JR Gifu Station → Gifu Bus Itadori line → Horado Kiwi Plaza, then change to the Itadori Fureai community bus → Monet's Pond-mae. From that stop it is 150 m on foot. This is a community bus on a mountain route, so read the day's timetable before you set out rather than after you arrive.
Back the way you came: The return is the same two-leg trip in reverse, via Horado Kiwi Plaza to Gifu. The transfer only works if the two timetables line up, so look at them as a pair rather than one at a time, and fix your return before you walk down to the water.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Itadori is upstream country in the north of Seki, a valley of clear water. The pond lies beside the approach to Nemichi Shrine, off the road. It was made to hold irrigation water rather than to be looked at, and nobody ever gave it a name. Spring water runs into it continuously, so the bottom stays visible and the koi appear to hang rather than to swim. Water lilies and yellow spatterdock hold part of the surface, and the spring keeps the pond from freezing, so it is never quite out of season. There is no gate, no ticket desk and no building.

How to enjoy it

The prefecture and the city tourism association point to the same window, roughly nine to eleven in the morning, as the hours when the light sits on the water and the colour comes up. Cloud flattens it and rain ends it, so this is a place to check the forecast for rather than to slot into a fixed itinerary. Walk the bank instead of standing at one point: the light is directional, and what you see depends on where you stand in relation to it.

Background & history

Officially the pond is still the nameless pond. It was dug as a reservoir for the fields and appears in no old record of scenery. A local nursery owner cleared the weed out of it and planted the water lilies and spatterdock that cover it now. Photographs spread on social media before any guidebook noticed, and the prefecture lists the place under the nickname visitors gave it rather than under a name of its own.

Before you go

Cash: The pond costs nothing to visit. There is no gate, no ticket and no admission desk. Carry cash anyway, since this is a mountain valley rather than a town and the nearest counter is not close.
Good to know: The spring keeps the pond from freezing, so it holds water lilies through the cold months, and autumn brings colour to the slope behind it. Signs at the water ask visitors not to feed the fish, since clouding the water removes the only reason to come.
Another way: Most visitors drive. The official route is Mino IC → Route 156 → Prefectural Route 81 → Route 256 into Itadori Shiratani, and the car park takes about 200 cars plus coaches. Satnav does not always place the pond correctly, so the prefecture tells drivers to enter Flower Park Itadori instead.
After you get off: From the Monet's Pond-mae stop it is 150 m on foot to the water, a couple of minutes on the flat. The pond sits beside the approach to Nemichi Shrine, so walk toward the shrine and you cannot miss it.