Shinsen-en Garden, meaning a garden containing God’s fountains, once stretched out for over 100,000 square meters just southwest of the Imperial Palace. When Emperor Kanmu established a government in Kyoto in 794, he built a natural garden using these fountains to create beautiful ponds. It was the Emperor’s private garden for a long time.
In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu took most of the land from Shinsen-en Garden and built his own Kyoto residence, Nijo-jo Castle. So the current size of this garden is only one tenth of what it once was. It is now also part temple, part shrine.
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