Built in 1590, the Senshukaku Pavilion garden was originally part of a shoin-style villa in the grounds of Tokushima Castle. Senshukaku, the name of the garden that has survived down the centuries, means Pavilion of a Thousand Autumns.
Now a park charging a small entrance fee, the grounds consist of a pond and mountain garden and a karesansui. Massive blue-gray colored rocks are liberally used throughout the garden as bridges, embankments, stepping stones and arrangements symbolizing Mount Horai. The presence of these very assertive rocks reflects the confidence of Momoyama period gardens and castle architecture. Contrasting with the hardness of stone are clumps of azalea, cherry, pine and giant cycads.
A 10.6-meter-long stone bridge in the dry land scape garden connects turtle and crane islands. It is believed to be the longest such garden feature in Japan. It is quite common to see visitors walking along the bridge. No one appears to object to the practice. The dry landscape section of the grounds exemplifies the idea contained in the ancient gardening manual, the Sakutei-ki vertical stones” in a garden.
Completed in 1592, the Senshukaku or Pavilion of a Thousand Autumns received its poetic name only in 1908.
The roughly 10-meter-long stone bridge connects the crane and turtle island groups in the garden.
Pines and azaleas soften the highly assertive rock elements in this garden.
Besides azaleas and pine, huge cycads are planted in the karesansui, adding a subtropical appearance to parts of the garden.