Hama-rikyu Gardens

Hama-rikyu Gardens is a former shogun's garden on Tokyo Bay, between Shiodome and Tsukiji in Chuo City. It is known for a tidal pond fed by seawater and a teahouse on an island where you can drink matcha. Admission is 300 yen.

The garden was built from 1654 as a seaside villa for Matsudaira Tsunashige, younger brother of the fourth shogun. His son Ienobu became the sixth shogun, and the villa passed to the Tokugawa family as the Hama Goten. It later became an imperial detached palace, was given to the City of Tokyo in 1945 and opened to the public in April 1946. The story of the tidal garden covers its history in more depth.

Hama-rikyu Gardens tickets

• Adults: 300 yen

• Age 65 and over: 150 yen

• Elementary school age and younger: free

• Combined ticket with Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Gardens: 400 yen, or 200 yen for age 65 and over

• Free entry days: May 4 and October 1

Tickets are sold at the gates, and cards and IC transit cards are accepted. Volunteer guides lead free English tours of the garden on weekends and on the second and fourth Monday of the month, except in midsummer. The Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association posts schedule changes.

What to see at Hama-rikyu Gardens

Shioiri Pond and the island teahouse

Shioiri-no-ike is the only seawater pond left among Tokyo's Edo-period gardens. A sluice gate opens and closes with the tide in Tokyo Bay, so the water level and the look of the pond change through the day. Sea fish such as mullet and gobies live in it.

The Otsutai Bridge crosses to Nakajima-no-ochaya, a teahouse on an island in the pond. The current building dates from 1983, and you can sit inside with a bowl of matcha and a Japanese sweet. To learn more about the ritual behind it, read about taking part in a tea ceremony in Tokyo.

The shogun's teahouses

Three more teahouses stand on the pond shore. The Matsu-no-ochaya, Tsubame-no-ochaya and Taka-no-ochaya were rebuilt in 2010, 2015 and 2018 from historical records. Shoguns used them to entertain guests and to rest during falconry.

The 300-year pine and duck ponds

The Sanbyakunen-no-Matsu is a black pine said to have been planted when Ienobu renovated the garden. Its thick branches spread low and wide. In the east of the garden are two duck-hunting ponds, built in 1778 and 1791. Earth banks and trees screened them so that wild ducks would settle.

How to get to Hama-rikyu Gardens

The garden has two land gates, plus a pier for the water bus.

• Otemon Gate: 7 minutes on foot from Shiodome Station (Toei Oedo Line and Yurikamome) or Tsukiji-shijo Station (Oedo Line), and 12 minutes from Shimbashi Station (JR, Ginza Line and Asakusa Line)

• Nakanogomon Gate: 5 minutes from Shiodome Station exit 10, or 15 minutes from JR Hamamatsucho Station

• By water bus: Tokyo Cruise boats from Asakusa stop at the Hama-rikyu landing inside the garden

The boat from Asakusa runs down the Sumida River and is the most scenic way to arrive. You still pay garden admission when you land. A sightseeing bus day in Tokyo also stops at Hama-rikyu.

Best time to visit Hama-rikyu Gardens

Plum trees flower in late winter, and the flower fields turn yellow with rapeseed blossoms in spring. Cherry trees and wisteria follow. Yellow cosmos and cosmos fill the same fields from summer into fall, and the maples and ginkgo trees color in late fall. Give yourself 60 to 90 minutes for a loop of the pond and a stop at the teahouse.