Teien Art Museum Garden in Meguro
August 31, 2008 · Print This Article
It’s been raining all week in Japan, but very luckily there was a 90-minute random sunshine break Saturday afternoon, and that just happened to be the time Aya and I arrived at the small, but cozy and densely forested traditional Japanese garden surrounding the Teien Art Museum in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. The park contains the usual ponds and pogodas that all traditional Japanese gardens have, but is also dotted with several large pieces or artwork and sculptures. Pictured above is the most impressive, a huge, smooth marble square with a hole and seemingly a giant’s nose impression. It was very smooth the the touch. I enjoy running my finger tips over smooth, cool marble, and don’t often have the chance, so this was a nice, unexpected find.
Spiders were visible all over the place, and cicadas were audible from mostly hidden tree branch perches. The lone pond had the usual coy and turtles. Then there were some butterflies and dragonflies zipping around, all too fast to get any shots of.
The garden surrounds an excellent museum, that when combined with a visit of the park itself, combine to make an excellent afternoon in the city, but not in the city.
TEIEN ART MUSEUM GARDEN INFO:
- Admission fee ¥300 (with museum ¥1,000)
- 7-minute walk from Meguro Station (on the Yamanote line)
- 4-minute walk from exit #1 of Shirokanedai Station (Namboku line)
- Official park website in English
PHOTO GALLERY TEIEN ART MUSEUM GARDEN:
VIDEO FEATURING THE SOUND OF CICADAS:
EDITORIAL UPDATE: This post first mistakenly called it Shizen Kyoikuen Park.
- Kyu-Furukawa Gardens [photos]
- People of Meguro Station in Tokyo Japan
- Scenes from Kawagoe Saitama Japan
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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Japanese parks and gardens are my favorite. I love the landscaping and ponds.
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Jason Collin Reply:
September 5th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Do you have a backyard at your home in L.A.? Any Japanese style landscaping in it if you do? When I move back to the U.S. next year it would be great to carve out a little bit of yard (if not more) to look like one of these Japanese gardens.
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I am very lucky to have a small backyard with my condo about 15 x 15 feet. However, it is full of toys and sandbox and a grassy area for my boys and dog. So I wouldn’t be able to have much of a garden. But someday I would.
Even if you only have a small yard or patio, you can definitely make a nice little Japanese garden.
(Unrelated note - I am using the new Google Chrome browser and I am liking it more and more. One cool feature is it has a spell check feature similar to Word. When I misspell a word in a comment box like this, it puts a red line under the word. Right click and it gives the correct spelling.)
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Jason Collin Reply:
September 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Well, in the sandbox area you could do that raking of the sand that some Japanese gardens have??
(about the spellchecking, both Safari and Firefox have had that for a long time, I can’t believe you use IE!)
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I think I will start moving away from IE. Never used Firefox but heard it’s good.
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This park looks great! I too love the gardens in Japan and am always looking for new ones to explore - and now I have one!
Thanks
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Jason Collin Reply:
September 10th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Thanks Shane. It was the first garden I photographed with my new DSLR (Nikon D80). After five and a half years in Tokyo, I too find it a challenge to find new traditional gardens to explore.
Actually, I need to edit this post as the name of the park is wrong! These photos are actually of the Teien Museum’s garden. However, I hear the neighboring Shizen Kyoiku Park is great too!
Actually, I recommend going before September 23rd because then besides the great garden you can see the great sculpture exhibition by Katsura Funakoshi. I was very impressed, which is a rarity with art.
A review of the exhibition here:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20080904a1.html
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Shizen Kyoiku Park in Meguro…
This is a park in Meguro that I have never heard of but I will be sure to check out now. The sculptures look interesting and who doesn’t love a Japanese garden?…
I have been to the Tien Museum and garden and it is quite beautiful. In fact I blogged about the museum and their art deco exhibit a while back. My hubby and I went to an exhibit of old Tokyo photos there that was really intriguing and insightful.
Anyway, I soc’d the post so now you have to edit it…no pressure
I still want to check out the other garden though.
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Hi Jason,
We discovered the park and museum this month as well.
That white sculpture is very popular, everyone wants to go up and touch it ,climb through it and have their photo taken infront of it.
The museum in the house ( or should I say palace?) is fascinating .
We went to the current exhibition which has some pretty bizarre works of art in it. Well worth it just to see the inside of the house.
I’m off to figure out where you live now
Its not that far away from us.
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Jason Collin Reply:
September 24th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Hi Jon…..yeah, I thought the sculpture exhibit was great, and I am not easily impressed by artwork. In October there will be an open house of sorts in the building itself allowing people to take photos inside.
For hints on where I live, check my Google Street View post!
http://jasoncollin.org/2008/08/06/walk-down-my-street-tokyo-japan-google-maps-street-view/
Are you residing in Shinjuku-ku as well?
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I went to that park ages ago! That oval hole thing is cool I have a photo of me there with HUGE hair I would show you but don;t know how to add a photo.
Hope you’re welll Jacqueline
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Jason Collin Reply:
September 25th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Hi Jacko!
Send me the photo by e-mail and I’ll put it in the post!
Also, is your mailing address the same? I have a postcard to send your way.
Hope you are well too.
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[...] shot was taken at Shizen Kyoikuen (The Institute for Nature Study National Science Museum) in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan on the first day [...]
[...] park enough as an escape within the limits of Tokyo. And also right next door is the excellent Teien Art Museum Garden (and museum). I highly recommend both, especially for long-time Tokyo residents who have never [...]