Gardens

14th century

Many centuries ago, our beautiful site was already a scenic attraction where wild camellias naturally flourished. People called the area "Tsubakiyama" (camellia mountain).

Edo Era (1603 to 1867)

During the Edo Era, the Kuroda clan of the Kururi feudal domain resided in a villa where our hotel is currently located. Renowned poet Matsuo Basho also lived at adjacent Sekiguchi Bashoan for about 4 years, where he served the Kanda area water supply office. Our site even appeared in Utagawa Hiroshige's renowned "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" painting, which beautifully depicted the local water scenery.

Meiji Era (1868 to 1912)

In 1878, Yamagata Aritomo came into possession of the area, built a large mansion with gardens and named it "Chinzanso."

Iwamoto Katsugoro, Tokyo's leading gardener, created gardens that reflected the preferences of Yamagata. Many cultural figures including a master of flower arrangement praised the natural beauty of the garden and its pond.

Taisho Era (1912 to 1926)

In 1918, Yamagata entrusted Chinzanso to Fujita Heitaro, a top business leader in the Kansai region who was also a baron and president of the Fujita group. Fujita respected the wishes of Yamagata to leave the property unchanged. However, vast sections of the property including important buildings and gardens were incinerated by air raids in 1945.

Showa Era (1926 to 1989)

Chinzanso became the property of Fujita Kogyo in 1948. Company founder Ogawa Eiichi planted over ten thousand trees on the land to recreate the renowned gardens as "a green oasis in war-torn Tokyo following the war."

A festive party on November 11, 1952 marked the grand opening of Chinzanso as a garden restaurant. Since then, it has served as a well-known Japanese garden restaurant site for weddings and banquets of all sizes.

Heisei Era (1989 to 2019)