Tofukuji North Garden

The north garden at Tofukuji's Shinden Hall was designed to settle the mind. A spring-fed pond shaped like the character for heart or mind anchors the space, joined by a small waterfall and a forested hill where the Hitotei teahouse sits. When viewed from the Shinden, the teahouse lines up precisely with the Central Gate and Five-Story Pagoda beyond the garden walls, creating a receding sequence of structures that garden architect Ogawa Jihei VII planned deliberately during the 1914 rebuilding. The garden traces its origins to the late 1600s but was nearly destroyed in an 1887 fire.