Horikiri Shobu-en
The Aquatic Iris Garden in Katsushika
Horikiri Shobu-en is an iris garden on the banks of the Arakawa River in Katsushika ward located in the east of Tokyo in Japan. Its 6,000 water iris plants bloom in unison, with a peak flowering in the first half of June, in time to celebrate the Katsushika Iris festival.
Horikiri Shobu-en, a water garden in Tokyo, is best enjoyed during the iris flowering season, that starts at the end of May, and usually peaks during the 1rst half of June. Little known to foreign tourists, it is home to 200 various species and 6,000 Japanese iris plants, mainly of the Iris ensata species (hanashobu in Japanese), one of the 3 most represented species in the archipelago, along with Iris sanguinea (ayame in Japanese) a variety growing in soil.
As summer slowly settles in the capital, the warm and humid weather offers the most favorable conditions for iris cultivation. Katsushika ward, in the eastern side of Tokyo, has been renowned since the Edo period (1603 – 1868) for its wet grasslands whose sides are bordered by the large Arakawa and Edogawa rivers, making an ideal environment for the Japanese water iris that is also the ward’s official flower. Horikiri Shobu-en inspired several ukiyo-e artists, and specially Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858) who painted Horikiri no hanashobu in 1857, included in his famous One Hundred Famous Views of Edo print series.
Edo scenery and festive residential suburb
This historical iris garden comes as a nice surprise, as it is located off the touristic spots and away from the crowded areas of the capital. Horikiri is indeed a quiet residential neighborhood on the banks of the Arakawa and Ayase rivers, overlooked by an aerial 2-stories highway. Its streets decorated with purple lanterns 🏮 are home to the Katsushika Iris Festival (Katsushika Shobu Matsuri) that usually takes place from late May to mid-June. A few yatai food stalls and various events are also held on the weekend, and the matsuri even extends up north-east to Mizumoto Park.
The park is filled with the mainly white, mauve and purple hues of the majestic iris flowers. During the blooming season, the garden is truly a cornucopia of flowers, to explore on a well-thought walking path winding through a small superficies (less than 10 hectares), between flower-filled basins, ponds crossed by little bridges and wonderful Japanese pine trees and azaleas shrubs that complement this beautiful view. A little further in the back, a water lily pond and hydrangeas bloom at the same period. Several benches sheltered from sunlight provide a place to rest. Iris flowers are also illuminated in the early evenings of the weekend during the flowering peak.
The garden’s introductory building is home to Seikan-tei, a restaurant where one can stop for lunch (upon reservation) and eat seasonal traditional dishes, and to a café that also has a small range of hot and cold drinks.
Additionally Horikiri Shobu-en garden is open all-year round to view other smaller scale flowerings:
- Ume plum trees;
- Wisterias;
- A few sakura 🌸; and,
- Peonies.
In June, the stroll can extend to the banks of the nearby Arakawa River and its abundance of blooming irises.