Qualla: Ritsurin Garden https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ritsurin Garden https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden Ritsurin Garden: Introduction https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden/ Photo credit Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0. It took a hundred years to finish. Starting in 1625, when feudal lord Ikoma Takatoshi began shaping a garden around the South Pond, and ending in 1745 under the Fifth Lord Yoritaka, Ritsurin Garden grew through the ambitions of five successive lords of Takamatsu. Each inherited his predecessor's vision and expanded it, sculpting ponds, planting pines, and borrowing the forested slopes of Mt. Shiun -- "Purple Cloud Mountain" -- as a living backdrop that no gardener could have built. The result is one of the largest and most celebrated strolling gardens in Japan, a landscape designed to be experienced in motion, where every few steps reframe the view.

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Image: Suicasmo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/wyp7-ritsurin-garden-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ritsurin Garden: A Century of Shaping https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Calips assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. The garden's origins trace to 1625 in the old province of Sanuki, when Ikoma Takatoshi chose the east side of Mt. Shiun as his site. The mountain's greenery would serve as borrowed scenery -- a technique in Japanese garden design where the surrounding landscape becomes part of th...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Calips assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/wyp7-ritsurin-garden-a-century-of-shaping.mp3 0:06 2 full Ritsurin Garden: Two Gardens in One https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden/ Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. Ritsurin is really two gardens divided by history. The southern portion preserves the traditional Japanese style of the Edo period: meticulously shaped black pine trees with branches trimmed into geometric forms, stone arrangements, and ponds stocked with koi. The northern portio...

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Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/wyp7-ritsurin-garden-two-gardens-in-one.mp3 0:06 3 full Ritsurin Garden: The Art of the Pine https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden/ Photo credit Azagal258, CC BY-SA 4.0. What distinguishes Ritsurin from other great Japanese gardens is the sheer density of its cultivated trees. The hakomatsu -- carefully maintained black pines -- are the garden's signature. Their branches, twigs, and needles are trimmed into elaborate geometric shapes that look al...

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Image: Azagal258 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/wyp7-ritsurin-garden-the-art-of-the-pine.mp3 0:06 4 full Ritsurin Garden: The Mountain Behind the Garden https://qualla.com/ritsurin-garden/ Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. Mt. Shiun does not belong to the garden, but the garden would not exist without it. The mountain's forested slopes -- dense with broadleaf evergreens and conifers -- rise behind the southern ponds, giving the landscape a depth and wildness that no arrangement of stones or pruned ...

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Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/p/7/ritsurin-garden-wp/wyp7-ritsurin-garden-the-mountain-behind-the-garden.mp3 0:06 5 full