Kodai-ji hill garden

Designated as meishō (Place of Scenic Beauty), the tsukiyama hill style garden of Kodai-ji, Kyoto, is an exceptional piece of gardening architecture, impressing through its simplicity.

It features a small pond, a hill covered by grass, a carefully matched rocks collection and several trees, selected so that there's a specific color for every season: the maple tree is red in the autumn, the red-flowered crape myrtle, photographed here, blooms during summer, and the pine tree is green all year round.