Hamarikyu Gardens

Hamarikyu Gardens, or Hama-rikyu Onshi Teien (浜離宮恩賜庭園), located in Shiodome area, is a seaside Japanese stroll garden which draws in water from the sea to enjoy the changes of scenery caused by the tide. It is designated as a Special Place of Scenic Beauty.
Created in the 17th century by reclamation, it used to be the villa of Tokugawa Shoguns in the feudal times and was able to be used as a fortress in case of emergency. It was connected with the Edo Castle via moats and canals in those days. (See the article on Edo Castle (6) if you want to know more about the trails of the moats and canals which surrounded the Edo Castle.) The garden became a detached palace of the Imperial family in the following Meiji Era, and eventually became a public garden after WWII.
Although almost all of the buildings constructed before WWII were destroyed in the war, a few of them were reconstructed after that.
It's a 7-minute walk from Toei Oedo Line Shiodome Station.

This pine tree was planted in the early 18th century by the then Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu.

Uchibori, literally meaning "the inner moat," was used to relay goods which arrived from the Kansai region into the Edo Castle. There used to be warehouses in the east side of this moat, where the open space and flower gardens are now situated.

In this lawn garden with pine trees, there used to be the state guesthouse Enryokan in the Meiji era.

This duck-hunting ground was completed in 1791. Hunters hid behind the mounds and captured ducks by net which were attracted by the bait placed in narrow ditches.

Koshindo duck-hunting ground was constructed in 1778.

Nakajima-no-ochaya, located on a small island in the middle of Shioiri-no-ike Pond, is a post-war reconstruction of a Shoguns' resting house which was built in 1710 but was burned down in WWII.

Tsubame-no-ochaya is another Shoguns' resting house reconstructed in 2015. The former building was erected in the mid-Edo period but was lost in the Second World War.

Matsu-no-ochaya, too, used to be a resting house for Shoguns. It was built in the mid-Edo period, destroyed in WWII, and reconstructed in 2010.

Taka-no-chaya is a farm house style resting house which was originaly completed for Shoguns in 1975. It was lost in WWII and was reconstructed in 2018.

Hamarikyu used to directly face the sea. There remain stone steps for Shoguns who visited this site by boat.

This garden is located at the river mouth of the Sumida River, and there's a waterbus stop in the garden.