Tokyo / Ryogoku & Kiyosumi / Garden

Kiyosumi Garden

清澄庭園 きよすみていえん

A Meiji stroll garden of stepping stones across a carp pond, built by the founder of Mitsubishi with stones from every province.

EssentialNature · Quiet · History · Seasonal · Early morning

Iwasaki Yataro bought the ruined estate of an Edo merchant in 1878 and made it a garden for entertaining: a pond with three islands, a hill, a tea pavilion on the water, and famous stones brought by ship from all over Japan and set along the paths with their names. The iso-watari stepping stones cross the pond just above the water, with carp and turtles beneath your feet. It is smaller and quieter than the imperial gardens and the most complete Meiji garden in the city. Five minutes from the contemporary art museum and the coffee roasters.

Don't miss

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A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Go at opening on a weekday and you may have the pond entirely to yourself for half an hour.
Best time
Opening time; late November for the maples; the Sunday morning of the coffee walk.
Allow
50 min
Station
Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit A3, 3 minutes
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.tokyo-park.or.jp/park/format/index033.html · Map

Appears in

In this area: Ryogoku & Kiyosumi

Theatre Essential

Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo両国国技館と相撲

Sumo's home stadium — three fifteen-day tournaments a year, a museum, and the stables where practice starts at dawn.

180 min · Ryogoku (JR), west exit, 1 minute; Ryogoku (Oedo line), 5 minutes
Museum Worth it

Edo-Tokyo Museum江戸東京博物館

A life-size Nihonbashi bridge, a kabuki theatre and a merchant's house inside a museum shaped like a warehouse on stilts.

120 min · Ryogoku (Oedo line), exit A4, direct; Ryogoku (JR), 3 minutes
Museum Worth it

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT)東京都現代美術館

Japan's largest contemporary art museum, in a park east of the river, with a collection that starts in 1945 and a library of art books.

120 min · Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit B2, 9 minutes

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