Shukkeien, Japanese garden panorama

The Shukkeien Garden from Hiroshima is one of the most beautiful circular-tour Japanese gardens I have visited. In the middle of the garden is the Takuei pond, with over 10 decorative islands, like the one on the left of the photo. Around the pond, the builders designed an impressive collection of miniature scenic views, mountains, valleys, bridges and forests, views that give the garden its name: Shukkeien can be translated as "shrink-scenery garden".

The stone arched bridge in the back of my photo is called Koko-kyo, "straddling rainbow bridge" and was built 150 years after the garden was created, in 1783, at the request of Shigeakira, the seventh lord of the Asano clan. The bridge was designed by a famous landscape gardener, Shimizu Shichiroemon from Kyoto. Shukkeien was destroyed in 1945 by the atomic bomb, but it was reconstructed with great accuracy, so today we can enjoy it exactly how its creators designed it...