A few metres from Hamamatsucho Station, the Kyu Shiba Rikyu Gardens is a seldom-visited stop along the well-beaten path to Hama Rikyu and Takeshiba Pier. Reputedly the oldest garden in Tokyo, it was first laid out for a feudal lord in the mid-17th century, designed around a large pond filled with sea water from the nearby Tokyo Bay. After being almost destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the garden is now bordered by some of the city‘s most famous landmarks: Tokyo Tower and the World Trade Centre building rising in the background of passing bullet trains and monorails, neon-lit billboards, and many-storied building sites.
The pond still dominates the garden, crisscrossed by stone bridges and encircled by paths, a traditional archery field and little mounds of grass decorated with trellises, trees, gazebos, and weather-beaten stone lanterns. In the far corner you can see the place where the tidal waters entered, while a small sandy beach runs along the nearside by the tilting, moss-flecked Yukimi Tohro stone lantern. Everything else is in beautifully crafted miniature, from the tiny arched bridge in the centre of the carp-filled pond to the perfectly rounded peak of Ohyama Mountain, which offers the best vantage point over the garden. Sitting among the pine trees and closely trimmed azalea bushes, Ohshima and Ukishima islands laze on the surface of the water, and a couple stroll hand-in-hand single file across the Saiko-No Tsutsumi walkway, slowly zigzagging their way towards the far bank. Even the clang of metal and the flashing advertising signs don’t seem to matter too much when you realize you’re the only three people around. Hama Rikyu is bigger and much more immediately impressive, but you have to share it with so many people that it’s difficult to appreciate. Kyu Shiba grows on you.