Here, you can find some basic information on Kiyosumi Garden in English.
http://teien.tokyo-park.or.jp/en/kiyosumi/view.html
The following is a brief history and some background information on the garden, which I hope would be of your interest.
The History of Kiyosumi Garden
Around the 18th Century, a legendary hyper-rich merchant Kinokuniya Bunzaemon1 built his mansion in then newly-reclaimed land of Fukagawa. This is the origin of Kiyosumi Garden, a famous Japanese stroll-garden located in the heart of Koto-city.
As is the case with many newly emerged entrepreneurs, Kinokuniya Bunzaemon was a man of "boom-and-bust," and after the failure in his business, the property was succeeded, in the early 18th Century, by a feudal lord in today's Chiba prefecture. It is said that the feudal lord used the property as his residence in Edo, called Edo-yashiki2.
In the late 19th Century, after the fall of Tokugawa Shogunate, the Edo residence in Fukagawa was no longer in use, and was left to deteriorate. Iwasaki Yataro, the head of the Mitsubishi conglomerate, acquired this land and built a garden to greet the guests of the Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi is one of Japan's largest business combine. It has banks, real estate company, automobile, heavy industry, shipping, you name it. In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake devastated much of the garden. In 1924, Mitsubishi donated the half of the Garden to the Tokyo City, and the City restored the Garden and opened it to public.
Iwasaki was a collector of precious rocks, and some of his collections are scattered around the Garden, of which you can see in the garden.
A legendary hyper-rich built his mansion in Edo's new frontier, and a feudal lord succeeded the place. After the era of shoguns and lords are over, another modern-day capitalist bought the place, and created a beautiful garden at the site. And now, the place is open to the public, back to the hands of the people.
The entry fee of the garden is 150 yen. In Japan, approximately the same price with a bottle of mineral water. Really a good bargain! If you are lucky enough to be 65 or older, price goes down to 70 yen. In present-day Tokyo, 70 yen won't take you to the next station. Quite a steal, isn't it?
Here you can see what the rich guys saw, enjoy the landscape which nobles enjoyed, with such a reasonable price.
Kinokuniya Bunzaemon Legend
Kinokuniya Bunzaemon was a hyper-rich merchant who founded this place. He became something of a popular legend in the Edo Period Japan.
He was born in Kii-no-kuni, present-day Wakayama Prefecture, just south of Osaka, as a son of a local merchant. He first made fortune with mandarin orange trade. Mandarin orange is a specialty of Wakayama. One year, Wakayama experienced tremendous harvest of mandarin. The harvest was too good, that there were piles of orange with nowhere to go. Bunzaemon prepared his family's old ship, and loaded orange in abundance, almost free of charge, and sailed the ship to the east, to the capital city of Edo, present-day Tokyo. The orange sold so well, and he made a pile of money out of this trade.
The other year, there was a huge flood in Osaka, and bad plague spread the area. Bunzaemon heard about that, and gathered as much salted salmon as possible in Edo and the surrounding area. Then, Bunzaemon sent his men to Osaka, and let them spread the rumor, saying, "Hey, salted salmon is effective against the plague!" Now, everything was ready and Bunzaemon sent all the salmon he collected to Osaka, and they sold like wildfire. Now, he had another pile of money in his hand.
In 1657, there was a big fire in Edo, which burnt away much of the city. Bunzaemon invested all his money and bought out all the lumber in mountainous Kiso region in central Japan, just north of Nagoya. Edo was in the midst of construction boom after the fire, and Bunzaemon's lumber was his another smash hit---he made the third pile of money!
In the early 18th Century, however, his luck ran out. Bunzaemon got a deal from Tokugawa government to cast coin for them. The coin he produced was so poor in quality that it was in circulation only for a year. Bunzaemon lost his fortune in this failure, and subsequently lost his interest in business.
Bunzaemon is sometimes referred to as Kibun, a shortened form of his name. A food company Kibun, which specializes in oden ingredients, has nothing to do with this legendary merchant. Kinokuniya is also the name for a famous bookstore chain, and a classy supermarket chain, and neither of them is related to Bunzaemon or his family. The name Kinokuniya means "Merchant of the Kii region," the place where Bunzaemon was born.
Edo Yashiki
In the Edo Period, feudal lords are expected to stay in Edo every other year---a year in his local province, and the next year in Edo. So, every feudal lord had to maintain his residence in Edo, called Edo-yashiki. After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell and Meiji Government gained the power, such Edo residences were no longer necessary. Today, the sites of former Edo residences are utilized mainly as public facilities. Tokyo station, the University of Tokyo, American Embassy, Tsukiji Fish Market, the Imperial Hotel in Yurakucho, the Supreme Court---they are all built in the sites of former Edo residences. Kiyosumi Garden is one of such examples. by K.N.
