Maruyama Park joins a strolling garden, pond, and celebrated shidare-zakura in eastern Kyoto. As the city’s oldest public park, it layers public recreation onto a landscape shaped by gardeners and neighboring temples and shrines.
Guide preview
Maruyama Park’s famous weeping cherry tree is not the original. The first celebrated tree died in 1947; the one visitors see now was grown from its seed and planted in 1949 by landscape gardener Sano Toemon.
Continue exploring
Discover the full story
Keep reading with a travel pass and explore every full guide and tour.
UpgradeQuick facts
- Maruyama Park opened in 1886.
- The current weeping cherry tree was planted in 1949 from seed of its predecessor.
- Landscape gardener Ogawa Jihei VII completed a strolling garden in 1914.
More places in Kyoto
Adashino Nenbutsu-ji
Adashino Nenbutsu-ji is a Buddhist memorial site where thousands of stone markers honor the dead. Its quiet bamboo grove and memorial grounds ask visitors to approach the place with care, recognizing it as a site of prayer and remembrance.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is a narrow path through tall bamboo on Kyoto’s western edge. Its striking vertical lines make a small walk feel enclosed, while the grove belongs to a wider landscape of wooded hills and historic sites.
Byodo-in
Byodo-in’s Phoenix Hall appears to float above its pond, its wings reflected in the water. The temple’s garden was shaped to evoke the Buddhist Pure Land, making architecture and landscape part of a carefully composed religious image.
Chion-in
Chion-in’s monumental Sanmon gate frames entry to the head temple of Pure Land Buddhism. Built in 1621, the two-story timber structure is both an architectural landmark and a threshold into grounds associated with teacher Honen.
Daigo-ji
Daigo-ji stretches from a lower temple precinct up the slopes of Mount Daigo. Its pagoda, gardens, and mountain paths reflect how a Buddhist temple can encompass both built architecture and a much larger sacred landscape.
Daisen-in
Daisen-in is a small subtemple within Daitoku-ji, known for its dry landscape garden and historic abbot’s quarters. Its compact design uses stones, gravel, and carefully ordered views to suggest a wider journey through nature.