Okayama Koraku-en, the story of a name

The Japanese garden is a complex creation, filled with symbols, and not only the garden's design is important, sometimes even the name is a meditation subject in itself.

The name of the Okayama Koraku-en garden (one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan) comes from the expression sen-yu-koraku, meaning "garden of pleasure after". The name was intended to be a thinking theme for the Confucian principle "worry first, enjoy later" or, more detailed, "worry earlier than others, enjoy later than others".