Ako Castle Gardens

 

Ako Castle lies on the Inland Sea coast near the border of Hyogo and Okayama, and is famous as the home castle of the famous 47 Ronin.

While many castles would have a garden within the castle grounds for the enjoyment of the Lord and his reatiners and guests, Ako Castle is somewhat unusual in having two gardens.

The Honmaru Garden lies within the inner bailey of the castle, and the larger Ninomaru garden within the second bailey.

Both gardens were built at the same time as the new castle by Asano Nagano beginning in 1645.

The castle and the gardens were designed primarily by a retainer, Kondo Masazumi, with some input from his teacher the Confuciam scholar Yamaga Soko.

Once the High School and ist sports grounds were removed from the castle grounds in 1981 restoration of the grounds began.

These photos date from about 15 years ago and since then further restoration work on the gardens has been completed.

Both gardens are designated as National Scenic Spots.

They are both stroll type gardens, but the Ninomaru Garden was also used for boating.

The previous post was on Ako Castle.