Genkyuen Garden

Lovely garden, the route goes around a pond and leads up to a tea room. Nice view of Hikone castle. Interesting building to the left of the garden called “Raku-raku-en” which you can enter with no admission fee and have a look around.

Honestly, anyone not rating this a five is not well travelled. You'll rarely see such curated grounds, 500+ years old in such pristine condition. A garden that screams zen, a peaceful walk, a gorgeous view, unprecedented nature from cicadas buzzing to Dragonflies and bees buzzing around. The odd lizard too. It's part of the castle tour. Don't miss it.

This garden is never mentioned as one of the best gardens adjoining the many castles in Japan, and I for the life of me can't understand why. This garden was easily one of my favorites in the entire Kansai area. It isn't one of the biggest gardens, but it is by no means small either. There is a variety of scenes to be found and the backdrop of Hikone Castle is really impressive. This garden absolutely punches above its weight. Along with Hikone Castle, this garden is well worth the long train ride from Kyoto or Nagoya. Highly recommeded.

The view overlooking the proud castle tower is spectacular. Such a beautiful scenery. I visited 2023 November and I could easily imagine that all four seasons would be appealing. The size of the pond is exquisite. The stamp also beatiful, love it 🤩

Beautiful views of the castle from this garden in the valley. We visited on a windy day and found the garden to be significantly warmer than the castle due to adjacent hills blocking the wind. A large lake in the middle has a number of carp but no colorful koi. A nice walk and work visiting if you’re already at the castle.