Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens

During the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804-1830), when Edo townspeople's culture flourished, Sahara Kikuu, who operated an antique shop, collaborated with literary figures and artists from Edo with whom he had become friends to create and open a private flower garden, centered around the appreciation of flowering plants and trees.

When it opened, the garden was primarily composed of 360 plum trees, but later plants mentioned in classical literature, such as the Book of Songs (Shijing) and the Man'yōshū, were collected to ensure flowers would bloom throughout the four seasons. The name "Hyakkaen" (Hundred Flowers Garden) is said to derive from either "plum blossoms bloom before all other flowers" or "a garden where a hundred flowers of the four seasons bloom in profusion."
Hyakkaen was created by the leading cultural figures of its time as a garden that is both accessible to common people and rich in literary taste, possessing a beauty distinct from that of daimyo gardens such as Koishikawa Korakuen and Rikugien.