Japanese Gardens at Osaka Expo Park

Osaka Expo Park

The Japanese Garden in Expo Park, Osaka, is just over fifty years old, but is huge, measuring about 64 acres in total.

In fact it should really be considered as several gardens as it was buult for the World Expo70 and its purpose was to introduce foreign visitors to the history of garden design in Japan for the past 1000 years and more.

It is divided into four areas, the Ancient Garden, Medieval garden, Early Modern Garden, and the Modern Garden.

The Ancient Garden reflects the style of Heian Period gardens such as the ones at Byodo-in in Uji or Shinsen-en in Kyoto. Heavily Chinese in style.

The Medieval garden showcases gardens of the 12th to 16th centuries. This was the time of Zen influenced garden design, especially karesansui, the dry gardens of raked sand. It was also the time of the tea ceremony and the gardens here are home to several tea houses, though some are only open during the peak autumn leaves season.

The Early Modern garden focuses on the great daimyo gardens of the Edo Period. This was the time of the great strolling gardens, usually around a largish pond The largest pond at Osaka Expo is called Shinji Ike.

There is a large, covered rest area with great views of\ve the central part of the garden.

Any time of the year is good to visit, though obviously you can check and see what is flowering when. All these photos were taken in mid-Aptil.