Sankeien Garden

Sankeien is a Japanese garden of about six hectares at Mihara, about five minutes on foot from the terminal building of Hiroshima Airport. It was made in 1993 to mark the opening of the airport.

It is laid out as a strolling garden, with paths running past raised ground and a pond. The design takes the scenery of the prefecture as its subject, and the ground is divided into three zones: one for the mountains and valleys of Hiroshima, one for its countryside, and one for the Seto Inland Sea. The name, three views, comes from these three landscapes.

The mountain zone keeps a natural wood and has the Sandan no Taki (三段の滝), a waterfall in three steps with a drop of about 14 metres. The countryside zone, modelled on the farmland of the Kamo and Sera uplands, holds a bamboo grove, a plum grove, a farm pond and a maple valley. In the sea zone a large pond with a group of islands and bridges stands for the Inland Sea, and Chokentei (潮見亭), a sukiya-style pavilion built over the water, recalls Miyajima.

Plum flowers from early March and weeping cherry in April. Peonies and wisteria follow in late April and early May, with azaleas from mid April into June. The garden holds a flower festival in June, when the hydrangeas and irises are out. In November the maples turn, and the garden opens in the evening with the trees lit up during its maple festival.