Sengan-en Garden was built in mid-17th century by the powerful Shimazu clan who used to rule the Satsuma domain which makes a good part of the present day Kagoshima.
Senganen is a scenic Japanese landscape garden with shrines, small ponds and streams and a bamboo grove as well as a large number of plants and trees that bloom in different seasons, thereby making the garden scenery interesting all year round.
Of special interest would be the cherry trees of the Kanhizakura variety, known for its early flowering as the trees produce the blooms as early as in late January. Inside the garden is the Iso Residence, a building that was built together with the garden but which later became the main residence of the Shimazu clan descendants during the Meiji Era.
The garden is set against the stunning backdrop of Kagoshima Bay with Sakurajima standing tall behind it—another excellent illustration of the Japanese tradition of ‘borrowed scenery'.
