I don’t want to turn back time but would love to add a few more hours into each day since two gardens in one day(first one in Kumamoto and now in Kagoshima) was over-kill although completely different. The group trudged back to Kagoshima Chuo Station to take what is called the sightseeing bus which stops at all important Kagoshima sights including Sengan-en Garden on a brutally hot afternoon.
Sengan-en Gardens in Kagoshima was built in 1658 as the villa for the Shimadzu family and has wonderful views of active Sakurajima Volcano and island which was smoking. Kagoshima was home of the Shimadzu clan, southern Kyushu’s most powerful feudal family, and Satsuma was the southern door to Japan. The Shimadzu were influenced by the Chinese culture resulting in Chinese influences throughout the Japanese garden.
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partial Sengan-en Garden map, Kagoshima
partial Sengan-en Garden map, Kagoshima
cannon replica – Sengan-en Garden map, Kagoshima
There is a guided tour of the Shimadzu residence which we didn’t have time for. The tour takes 20 minutes, operates every 20 minutes between 9:00a to 4:40p and costs 600 Yen. The group also didn’t have time to hike up one of the beautiful garden trails after a day filled with public transportation and sightseeing.
We began walking at a replica of a 150 pound iron cannon; the most powerful of the Edo period and used against the English while a former reverberating furnace once stood nearby. The most advanced large cannon casting facility at the end of the Edo period is now just a plot of land. Past by the Shimadzu residence (tour only) and into the Jingen-ryu Martial Arts Exhibition Room place with a video showing how samurai trained with large sticks. Then through gardens and a vermilion-colored gate (orange) with its white tin roof used exclusively by Shimadzu.
view of Sakurajima Volcano, Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima
large stone lantern in Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima
samurai depiction at Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima
Particularly interesting is the Konan bamboo grove with Moso bamboo imported from China in the middle of Edo Era which spread all over Japan from this garden; and
I loved the Cat Shrine, one of the rarest of such shrines in Japan. In the late Sixteenth Century, Shimadzu Yoshihiro sent an expeditionary army to Korea and took seven cats with him; two survived and are enshrined here. Many votive tablets (ema) on which wishes are written hang at the Cat Shrine, dedicated to beloved cats.
votive tablets to pet cats, Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima
Sengan-en Garden Cat Shrine, Kagoshima
Sengan-en Garden cat souvenirs, Kagoshima
TIP: Sengan-en Garden had high-class, wonderful souvenir shops; leave enough time to browse.
only Shimadzu could enter the red gate, Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima
unusual red flowers – Sengan-en Garden, Kagoshima