Shiratori garden in Nagoya City is a full-scale Japanese garden built on the land reclaimed from Shiratori timber pond.

Beside the Horikawa River running through the heart of Nagoya, a big timber pond was built in the 17th century for providing quality timber collected from Kiso and Hida by the local rivers.

After the 19th century, in accordance with the change of timber transport from water to land, the importance of the timber pond weakened and it was gradually reclaimed for the site of an international convention center and university.  This garden is a typical Japanese garden with a path around a central pond, and the largest one in the region despite the shallow history.

Needless to say that it is designed to let the visitors enjoy throughout the four seasons, it is well known as one of the best cherry blossom spots as shown in the first photo of a weeping cherry.  Befitting the Nagoya area located in the Nobi plain through which three major rivers in Japan flow, the garden features a large central pond with richly varied shape arranged from the center to the periphery, as well as three tea houses built alongside the pond, all of which are superbly designed as shown in the second photo.

Jason Hardy.

http://tour-guide-japan.jp/