Stepping stones
Round, across the pond.
Kimon Berlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · 663highland — CC BY 2.5 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Kimon Berlin, user:Gribeco — CC BY-SA 4.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Tomi Mäkitalo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0 · KimonBerlin — CC BY-SA 2.0
A Japanese garden in Nara and the city's only strolling garden, laid out so visitors wander its paths around a pond. It is made up of two sections that were originally separate gardens, each with a traditional house. The western garden was once part of a small sub-temple of Kōfuku-ji; a wealthy leather merchant bought it in the 1670s, relandscaped it between 1673 and 1681 and built two thatched houses. The larger eastern garden dates from 1899, designed by a Nara businessman with a garden master from the Urasenke tea school. Paths circle a broad pond with islands and round stepping stones, and from the eastern garden visitors look out to the roof of Tōdai-ji's great gate and the mountains beyond, borrowed into the scene. The garden also has the Neiraku Museum of ancient Asian art. Adult tickets are 1,200 yen; it opens 9:30-16:30 (last entry 16:00) and closes on Tuesdays and for maintenance periods in winter and late September, according to its official site. It is loveliest in autumn with the maple colours.
Round, across the pond.
Tōdai-ji's gate roof.
In the western garden.
Near Tōdai-ji, central Nara
Tōdai-ji Temple and the Great Buddha HallA Buddhist temple complex in Nara, once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples,5 minutes walk4.6
Nara Park and its DeerA large public park in Nara at the foot of Mount Wakakusa, established in 1880 a7 minutes walk4.7
Kasuga Taisha Grand Shrine and its LanternsA Shinto shrine in Nara, the shrine of the powerful Fujiwara family, founded in 14 minutes walk4.6It opens 9:30-16:30 and closes on Tuesdays, and adult tickets are 1,200 yen, according to its official site.