Kunenan Autumn Public Opening

The Kunenan Autumn Public Opening is the yearly autumn viewing of Kunenan, the former villa garden of the Itami family in Kanzaki, Saga Prefecture, and a national Place of Scenic Beauty. Saga Prefecture, which owns the garden, opens it only for short periods in spring and autumn. The autumn opening has been held since 1988, when the maples turn red over the moss.

Highlights

The garden was made over nine years from 1900, in the natural style of tea gardens. In autumn its maples stand in red and orange over green moss, around the thatched roof of the villa. Stone steps and stepping stones lead through the grounds and up the hillside.

The 2026 opening

In 2026 the opening runs for 16 days, as it did in 2025, longer than the usual nine. On the weekends and the public holiday of the run, two concerts take place each day, late in the morning and in the early afternoon: taiko drumming by the Shaguma Taiko preservation society, the bamboo flute shinobue, a jazz orchestra, accordion, an orchestra, the transverse flute yokobue and saxophone.

In the first part of the run, tea and wagashi sweets are served in the grounds of Niiyama Shrine next to the garden. In the last week, tea from Ureshino is served inside the garden, with sweets from a different local confectioner each day. Three or four food trucks set up each day with roasted sweet potatoes, Japanese sweets, baby castella and candied apples.

A walking route around the garden takes in Niiyama Shrine, said to date back 1,300 years, the temple Niiyama Jizoin, the former home of the Dutch-learning doctor Ito Genboku, the shrine's Nio-mon gate, the day-use bath Momiji no Yu with a cypress footbath, and Niiyama Park.