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Apart from building magnificent castles, Japanese are also very good at landscaping and creating beautiful gardens. For Today’s Japan Photo, we will take a look at Kenroku-en 兼六園, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan.

The photo was taken by flickr user MissDaisy44, and we get to see the lovely garden during winter. The snow-covered garden feels so pristine covered in beautiful white snow.

Here’s a little more background info on Kenroku-en [兼六園]:

Kenroku-en [兼六園] located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden developed from the 1620s to 1840s by the Maeda clan, the daimyo who ruled the former Kaga Domain.

Along with Kairaku-en and Koraku-en, Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. It is open year-round during daylight hours and famous for its beauty in all seasons; an admission fee is charged.

The garden is located outside the gates of Kanazawa Castle where it originally formed the outer garden, and covers 114,436.65 m² (over 25 acres). It began in 1676 when the 5th lord Maeda Tsunanori moved his administration to the castle and began to landscape a garden in this vicinity. This garden was, however, destroyed by fire in 1759. Its restoration was begun in 1774 by the 11th lord Harunaga, who created the Emerald Waterfall (Midori-taki) and Yugao-tei, a teahouse. Improvements continued in 1822 when the 12th lord Narinaga created the garden’s winding streams with water drawn from the Tatsumi Waterway. The 13th lord Nariyasu subsequently added more streams and expanded the Kasumi Pond. With this, the garden’s current form was complete. The garden was opened to the public on May 7, 1874.