Koishikawa Botanical Garden 小石川植物園

A lush city park home to thousands of different plant species

Filled with numerous cherry trees and home to a classic Japanese landscape garden, the Koishikawa Botanical Garden is an often-overlooked park located in the heart of the city. This park is one of the University of Tokyo’s two botanical research facilities, used for research and education in plant sciences.

The gardens here are the oldest botanical gardens in Japan. The park was created 1684, when the Shogun of the time Tsunayoshi Tokugawa (1646-1709) planted a medicinal herb garden here, which remains today. The grounds are home to a few thousand tree and plant species including an extensive collection of cherry trees famous for their springtime bloom.