Hama-rikyu Gardens: free English audio guide

Hama-rikyu Gardens is an Edo-period shogun's garden with a pond fed by seawater from Tokyo Bay and two surviving duck hunting sites, right below the Shiodome skyscrapers. Walk it with this free audio guide in your earphones: stories, history and things to look for at each stop.

Hama-rikyu Gardens audio guideFor earphones, as you walk (11 tracks)

PochikaYour guide around Tokyo

Sagi-senseiTemples, gardens and history

KasukeHidden spots and surprises

ChunOld town, shops and festivals

▶ Play from the startNext ▶▶

1. WelcomePochika
2. From reed marsh to shogun's villaSagi-sensei
3. The three hundred year pineKasuke
4. An elephant on the lawnChun
5. The shogun's sugar labChun
6. The tidal pond and Nakajima teahouseSagi-sensei
7. Sea fish in a garden pondKasuke
8. The duck hunting sitesSagi-sensei
9. A president and the last shogunKasuke
10. From palace to public gardenSagi-sensei
11. GoodbyePochika

Your first 3 audio guides are free.

Keeps playing with the screen off. It stops after each spot: when you arrive at the next one, tap “Next” or ▶▶ on your lock screen. Voices: Kokoro (open-source text-to-speech)

Visiting info

Checked on 2026-10-29 against the official pages. Hours can change; please check the official page before you go.

Transcript

1. Welcome (Pochika)

Welcome to Hama-rikyu Gardens, I'm Pochika! This was the shogun's garden by the sea, and it is the only garden left where seawater really flows in and out of the pond. It is open from nine to five, with last entry at four thirty. Adults pay three hundred yen, and you can pay with a transit IC card, a credit card or PayPay. We start at Otemon gate, on the Tsukiji side. Each track stops at the end, so tap Next when you reach the next spot.

2. From reed marsh to shogun's villa (Sagi-sensei)

Hello, I'm Sagi-sensei. Until the Kan'ei era, which ended in 1644, this was a reed marsh where the shoguns hunted with falcons. In 1654 Matsudaira Tsunashige, younger brother of the fourth shogun, reclaimed land from the sea and built a villa here. When his son became the sixth shogun, Ienobu, it became the shogun family's villa, Hama Goten. Later shoguns kept reworking it, and under the eleventh shogun, Ienari, the garden took nearly the shape you see today.

3. The three hundred year pine (Kasuke)

Hey, I'm Kasuke. Just inside the gate, on your right, look at this black pine. It is said to have been planted to honor the sixth shogun, Ienobu, when he greatly expanded the garden. That makes it about three hundred years old. See how its thick branches stretch low and wide, almost along the ground? It has seen this place change from a shogun's villa to a palace to a public garden.

4. An elephant on the lawn (Chun)

Hi, I'm Chun! Here's a story nobody believes at first. In 1729 an elephant brought from Vietnam left Nagasaki and walked for about seventy-four days to Edo. After it met the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, it was kept right here at Hama Goten. About twelve years later its food cost too much, so it was handed over to villagers in Nakano. Picture an elephant on these lawns. The view changes a little, doesn't it?

5. The shogun's sugar lab (Chun)

One more Yoshimune story. He wanted Japan to make its own sugar. In 1727 sugarcane was planted here, trial sugar-making seems to have begun around 1729, and brown sugar was produced in 1731. Then the seedlings were moved to an herb garden in Chiba. So the banks of the pond in front of you were an early sugar laboratory. Sweet, right?

6. The tidal pond and Nakajima teahouse (Sagi-sensei)

Now cross the Otsutai bridge to the teahouse in the middle of the pond. Sluice gates open and close with the tide of Tokyo Bay, so the water level of this pond really rises and falls. Long ago you could see the Boso Peninsula across the sea from here, and people came to cool off in the evening and to view the moon. The building was rebuilt in 1983 and serves matcha. From here, the pond and the Shiodome towers fit into one view.

7. Sea fish in a garden pond (Kasuke)

Look closely at the water and the rocks. Because the pond is fed by the bay, it is home to sea fish: mullet, young sea bass, gobies and even eels. Crabs and barnacles cling to the stones. Walk toward the sluice gate and watch Tokyo Bay water flowing in or out. Also look for the three rebuilt teahouses, Matsu, Tsubame and Taka. They were rebuilt from historical records between 2010 and 2018.

8. The duck hunting sites (Sagi-sensei)

Two duck hunting sites survive, Koshindo Kamoba from 1778 and Shinsenza Kamoba from 1791. Each pond and its woods are walled in by an embankment about three meters high, so the ducks cannot see out. Narrow channels called hikibori lead off the pond. Hunters watched through small peepholes and lured ducks into the channels with millet and decoy ducks, then caught them, with falcons in the Edo period and with hand nets later. Find a peephole and look through it. A memorial mound for the ducks was built in 1935.

9. A president and the last shogun (Kasuke)

Two famous arrivals. In January 1868, after losing the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, came back from Osaka by ship. According to Serai dot jp, he landed here, and the landing place still survives. Then in 1869 a Western-style guesthouse, the Enryokan, was built in the garden, described as modern Japan's first state guesthouse. In 1879, former US president Ulysses S. Grant met Emperor Meiji there. Only the site remains.

10. From palace to public garden (Sagi-sensei)

After the Meiji Restoration the villa became an imperial detached palace, Hama Rikyu. It lost its teahouses in the Great Kanto Earthquake and in the war. On November 3, 1945 it was granted to Tokyo, and it has been open to the public since April 1946. Together with the surrounding water, it is a national Special Place of Scenic Beauty and Special Historic Site. In spring the flower fields fill with rapeseed blossoms, and in autumn with cosmos against the towers.

11. Goodbye (Pochika)

Thanks for walking with us! Leave by Nakanogomon gate toward Shiodome, about five minutes away, then Ginza is about ten minutes on foot. Or try our favourite plan: breakfast at Tsukiji Outer Market, then this garden at nine. Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Gardens is about point seven kilometers away, and the Sono-musubi ticket covers both gardens. See you next time!

FAQ

Is the audio guide free?

Your first 3 audio guides are free, with no app and no sign-up. After that, a 7-day pass for ¥500 unlocks every guide. The scripts are always free to read.

Do I need a reservation?

Adults ¥300, 65 and over ¥150 (free for children of elementary school age and under, and for junior high students living or studying in Tokyo). Free on May 4 and October 1

Where does the tour start?

At Otemon gate, 7 min from Tsukijishijo or Shiodome Station. The tracks follow the pine, the tidal pond and Nakajima teahouse, the sluice gate, the duck hunting sites and the flower fields, ending at Nakanogomon gate toward Shiodome. Each track stops at the end, so tap “Next” when you reach the next spot.

When is it closed?

December 29 – January 1

Sources

• Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association: Hama-rikyu Gardens (Japanese)
• ALIC: Sugar information (Japanese)
• Nippon Tabi Magazine: Rare animals that came to Edo (Japanese)
• Japan Center for Asian Historical Records: Enryokan (Japanese)
• Serai.jp: Tokugawa Yoshinobu returns to Edo (Japanese)
• Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Construction: Hama-rikyu Gardens leaflet (Japanese)
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government: Hamarikyu guide (Japanese)
• Tokyo Tourist Info: Hamarikyu Gardens
• Walkerplus: Hamarikyu Gardens (Japanese)

This page in Japanese