We enter the gate of Koishikawa Botanical Garden 小石川植物園 and go up a not-so-gentle slope. It’s reflected the geological structure of the Garden. The Northeast half of Koishikawa Garden is spreading relatively dry hilltop. The Southwest half has several springs which creates ponds and wetland-like environments. We can enjoy both dry climate loving plants and aquatic ones at one place. As I visited there early February, the ponds did not show lively development above surface. Though, I’m sure if it’s in June or July, we could see lotus and the other water vegetations. Between the hill and the ponds there is small but steep cliff-like slope that would be a fault line. Basically, the downtown area of Tokyo, like Ginza, Akihabara, and the area around Tokyo Station, was a large marsh some 600 years ago. Later several warlords, including the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康, reclaimed the land by changing the flow of Tone 利根川 and Arakawa 荒川 Rivers. The wetland part of Koishikawa Garden would be a remnant of ancient environment of Tokyo.
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| The map of the Garden at the entrance. |
On our left of the climbing paved slope, we find an old 20-th century building that is the main (campus) building of the Garden. Before this architecture, there are large Japanese Sago Palms. These are academically important for Japanese botany, with another historical tree here. Please remember them. On our right, there is a large (I guess) Tilia platyphilla. The Garden has lots of VERY large old trees like this that show the history of the place. At the end of the slope there is a space under the gigantic deodar cedars. They are implants which came at the beginning of the Botanical Garden for the University. From the place of cedars, we can see a field and an old house which is the oldest building in the Garden, built in 1919. Before it was used for classes of physiologica chemistry, but now the place has small exhibition rooms and souvenir shop.
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| Sago Palms |
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| The trees in exhibition, with name plates |
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| I
think it‘s Tilia platyphilla ... |
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| Deodar cedars |
From the deodar-cedars‘ place, meandering stroll paths are circling the allotments which are allocated each for a particular family, like wisteria, cherry and azalea. On our right there is a block for glasshouses. The one nearest to the visitors‘ path is open for the public. Naturally, they keep plants that are difficult to survive under cooler, or warmer, climate of Tokyo, i.e. the place is for curious plants. When a flower of Titan arum blossomed last December, they moved the specimen to this public glasshouse, and crowds advanced on to the Garden. Actually, in front of the glasshouse, there are two curious trees standing. One is an apple tree. Another is a grape. They look quite ordinary, but the apple tree was grafted from the apple tree in the birthplace of Newton. The grape is from the cutting of a tree from the vineyard where Mendel worked for producing better wine (yep, he also studied such things other than the genetics).
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| I‘m
impressed they keep these ancient wisterias this way. That‘s professional. |
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| Azaleas. They would be beautiful in early May. |
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| The glasshouse opens to the public. |
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| Newton’s apple |
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| Mendel’s grape |
Greeted by such venerable trees, we enter a Japanese maple lined street, passing the allotment for camelias on the right, and meet a 300 years‘ old Ginko biloba. This and the Sago trees are very important in the history of Japanese botany. When Japan started industrialization in the late 19th century, scholars in Japanese Universities tried hard to prove they could do world-class researches. There were two scholars, Hirase Sakugoroh 平瀬作五郎 and Ikeno Seiichiroh 池野成一郎 in Tokyo University at that time who wondered how Ginko biloba and Sago tree, both anemophilous, fertilized. Hirase engaged in close microscopic study of the female flowers of Ginko biloba in this Botanical Garden and in 1894 found sperms from a pollen swam to the ovum. Few months later, Ikeno watched a similar development in the female flower of one of the Sago palms in the Garden. They published their findings, and became the first academic big and global news coming from Japan, reporting the reproduction process of gymnosperms which was unknown until then. The proud trees of the achievement now have a nice exhibition plate before them so we can know their contribution.
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| Japanese maple street |
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| Camelias were also at their best in February. |
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| THE Ginko biloba |
Around the famous Ginko biloba there are 4 gigantic Camphor trees. Yeah, they are the trees that grow big, worthy for a house of Totoro. And so, we ordinary citizens do not plant them in our tiny garden. They are the testimony the place was a garden of Shogun. From the Camphor-tree-place to the northwest, the route is along the wide ridge of a hill full of large trees. We walk the boulevard lined by huge Tilia miqueliana, then Platanus orientalis which was the first implants brought from West Asia to Japan in the late 19th century. Next, tulip tree. Cornus officinalis that came here from China when the place was for the hospital. Its neighbor is endemic Ilex latifolia which exists in Japanese mountains from ancient times when people used its leaves for writing Buddhism mantra. Chinese quince was introduced here probably for manufacturing medicine during the hospital days, etc, etc … What is different walking under the big trees here, from, say, the ridgeway hike of Oku-Takao 奥高尾 with wild endemic trees (my three posts from February 25 to March 11, 2022) is some trees are really exotic plants intentionally introduced according to the usage of the place, like mansion for Shogun, general hospital, and aspiring international university. People transplanted them long ago, and has taken care of them for hundreds of years …
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| … Totoro … |
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| The seeds for Tilia migueliana remained in February. |
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| Platanus orientalis |
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| Ilex latifolia, aka Postcard tree |
At the end of the ridge way, there is a gazebo looking at the southwest spread of megalopolis Tokyo. Steps rapidly go down to the ‘wetland’ area of the Garden. Down there is a series of ponds with manicured vegetations of pines, crepe-myrtle, various boxes, etc. + strategically located rocks. This is a Japanese garden, the remnant of the time for little-boy Tokumatsu 徳松, who later became the 5th Tokugawa Shogun Tsunayoshi 綱吉. As such, this area is full of flowering shrubs and a large plum garden. It was in full-bloom during the middle of February. Beyond the plums, the vegetation becomes more of transplanted varieties including baldcypresses and redwoods. I personally impressed by the lines of Japanese alders here in the middle of Tokyo. The species loves boggy environment which is these days destroyed for development in Tokyo area, including Kanagawa Prefecture. The alders in Koishikawa Garden looked nice, well and thriving. I hope they won’t be the last standing for the survival of species like rhinos in zoo …
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| Tokyo is there. |
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| The beginning of an old Japanese garden |
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| We’re in the middle of Tokyo … |
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| I guess the ponds have a very slow flow … |
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| Baldcypress … er, yeah its roots for the photo. |
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| Quiet waterfront |
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| To the redwood lined street |
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| Japanese alders there. |
From the lower-land place, we can exit the garden directly, or return to the field of cherries on the hills. The entire Garden is of about 16ha. If you run it won’t take 30 minutes to go round. But, running could be a waste of your opportunity to enjoy such an academic Garden. All the displays have name plates facilitating nature observation sessions for pure novice. In a couple of weeks, their cherry field becomes pink clouds of cherry blossoms. The place will be an ideal location for cherry blossom party! Oh, I have to add this. We can picnic there, but of course all the trash must be removed with us. And no flower picking, collecting acorns, etc is allowed. This is THE educational place, mate.
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| Early flowering cherry was in full-bloom already last month. |
Koishikawa Botanical Garden
Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo
3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo 112-0001
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