KENROKUEN GARDEN

One of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, located in Kanazawa, a leading tourist city in Ishikawa Prefecture. Its construction next to Kaga Castle took about 200 years during the Edo period by the line of lords of the Kaga Domain, which produced about one million koku (approx. five million bushels) of rice annually. The name Kenroku-en literally means “garden that combines six characters” (i.e., spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, water courses, and panoramas). More so than the famous kotoji-tōrō (a two-legged stone lantern) and the picturesque karazaki pine trees protected from snow by conically arranged yukizuri ropes, I am intrigued by the water jet spewing from what is said to be Japan’s oldest water fountain. How was it possible? I don’t believe there was electricity to drive the pump back in the Edo period. I learned that the water is supplied from Kasumiga-Ike pond, with the water pressure a result of the difference in elevation between the surface of the pond and the fountain. I see. Kenroku-en was a high-tech park during the Edo period.