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Garden · Hakusan

Koishikawa Botanical Garden 小石川植物園

Japan's oldest botanical garden, a 1684 shogunate herb garden now run by the University of Tokyo, with a descendant of Newton's apple tree, Mendel's grapevine and a quiet Japanese garden.

Hours9:00–16:30 (last entry 16:00)
ClosedMondays (Tue if Mon is a holiday); year-end holidays
PriceAdult (high school+): ¥500
Elementary & junior high: ¥150
Getting thereHakusan Station (Mita Line) Exit A1, 10 min; Myogadani Station (Marunouchi Line), 15 min
Time needed1–1.5 hours
Best timeLate March (cherry); late November (ginkgo)
Address3-7-1 Hakusan, Bunkyo City, Tokyo
Websitebg.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koishikawa

About

Officially the Botanical Gardens of the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Science, Koishikawa began in 1684 as the Tokugawa shogunate's medicinal herb garden, and in 1722 the shogun added a free clinic for the poor that later inspired the drama "Red Beard". Today its 16 hectares slope from a wooded plateau down to a Japanese pond garden, with research greenhouses, a Meiji-era red-and-white medical school building reflected in the water, and scientific curiosities such as a tree grafted from Isaac Newton's apple tree and a vine from Gregor Mendel's grapes. It is a botanist's garden, so the plantings are about diversity rather than display, huge ginkgos (on which the sperm of seed plants was first discovered), Himalayan cedars and seasonal cherries and plums. Locals come for quiet hanami without the tarps and crowds.

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Open in Google Maps · Info checked 2026-10-09

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