A City That Never Stopped Cutting — A Garden Shaped by Hand for 180 Years, Then Six Seats Inside a Knife Shop

Nothing in Kenrokuen is allowed to simply grow.

The pines are shaped by hand every year. Branches that reach too far over the water are cut; branches that don't reach far enough are trained until they do. Every November, poles go up and ropes are strung from their tops to the outer limbs, holding them against snow that may not arrive. The garden reads as calm and inevitable, and it is the product of continuous, deliberate cutting by people whose job title has existed here for three hundred years.

You'll walk it for half an hour with someone who can point at a branch and tell you it was decided. The two-legged Kotoji lantern, the pond that fills the middle of the garden, the pine carried here from Lake Biwa, and the fountain still driven by a canal cut in 1632 with nothing but the height of the water behind it.

Then tea, in the reconstruction of the villa the garden began as: one room built in 1676 for taking tea beside a pond, torn down in the Meiji era, rebuilt in 2000 from surviving floor plans. Matcha and a seasonal sweet on tatami, facing everything that came afterwards.

And then the other blade. In Higashi Chaya, a six-seat counter that opened in 2026 inside a Japanese knife showroom — the knives on the wall are the ones working in front of you, and you can buy the one you watched. Fish arrives from the Kanazawa market each morning; some of it is aged before it reaches the board. Each piece comes to you a third larger than usual and unwrapped: you lay it on the nori yourself and eat it in two bites, so the flavour turns halfway through. Rice from Ishikawa, nori from a long-established house, a sweeter soy from western Japan, salt worked with scallop and kombu.

Two crafts that look like restraint and are actually decision after decision, in one morning. You finish at lunch, at a counter, in a room that sells the tools.

◾️ Good to know
Please arrive at Kenrokuen's Katsurazaka Gate by 9:45.
Maximum 6 participants — the counter has six seats in total.
The teahouse is tatami seating. Let your guide know at booking if sitting on the floor is difficult.
Please tell your guide at booking about allergies, shellfish included, and about anything you'd rather not be served raw.
Transfer between the garden and Higashi Chaya is about 25 minutes on foot or 10 by taxi — taxi fare is not included; tell your guide which you'd prefer.
The garden is gravel throughout; flat shoes are a good idea. Kenrokuen admission, the teahouse and the meal are included.
This activity ends at lunch and pairs well with an afternoon in Higashi Chaya — your guide will leave you with recommendations.