TERASU: Mejiro Garden Autumn Light-up

TERASU is the autumn light-up of Mejiro Garden, a Japanese garden owned by Toshima City in Tokyo. After dark, the maples, the pond and the teahouse are lit, and concerts, workshops and food stalls fill the garden during the run.

Mejiro Garden opened in 1990 as a place to be close to nature and to keep traditional culture alive. It is a chisen kaiyu (池泉回遊式) garden, laid out for walking around a large pond. A waterfall, a hexagonal pavilion over the water and Sekichoan (赤鳥庵), a teahouse in the sukiya style, stand around the pond. Since April 2025 the garden has been run by the Mejiro Garden Park Management joint venture, led by Ohdako.

Highlights

The lighting does not cover the garden evenly. It picks out the colored leaves, their reflections in the pond, the stone arrangements and the shadows of the buildings, and leaves dark spaces in between. Lanterns made by students of the nearby Soen Hoiku Senmon Gakko, a college for nursery teachers, and by kindergarten children are set out at the nagaya-mon (長屋門), the gatehouse.

The name TERASU came with a new concept in 2025, built around the local community. It presents the garden as the machi no engawa (まちの縁側), the veranda of the town.

The 2026 edition: autumn leaves and magic lanterns

The 2026 theme is Momiji to Gento ga Tsunagu Aki no Yonaga (紅葉と幻灯がつなぐ秋の夜長), autumn leaves and magic lanterns for the long autumn night. New this year, projection mapping is shown on the Sekichoan teahouse for the last part of the run, the first time in the autumn light-up.

The 2026 program includes a coffee evening with live ambient music, a marimba concert for children, a percussion concert, a gypsy guitar concert, yoga in the garden with matcha, tea served in the teahouse, a hand-drip coffee class and craft days for making lanterns. A preview night for photographers, with tripods allowed, comes the evening before the opening. On some days, food stalls set up in the garden: Passsand with coffee and churros, Cacao Kobo Tribute with chocolate, nico letter with coffee, and a local market.