They say there were many gardens of Tokugawa vassals around waterfront of Tokyo in Edo period (17th – 19th Century), since it was comparetively easy to fill the land to form the gardens (and probably easy to carry in large stones by boats).
Within such gardens, Hama-rikyu was the family garden of Tokugawa clans, also originally aimed to function as outer fort for Edo castle. It was developed from two duck hunting grounds in the middle of 17th century by Tokugawa, and is charcterized by its pond called “Shioiri-no-ike”, or Tidal Pond that draw in seawater from Tokyo bay. The pond still works to change its level of surface as tide goes high and low, showing diffent kind of fishes of freshwater or seawater. Since the Edo period is comparetively peaceful, the garden is mostly used as guesthouse or resthouse for duck hunting and recently the four tea hats were restored.
Almost 5 times of Tokyo dome in size, takes one hour or plus 30 min.
