Rikugien Garden is one of Tokyo’s finest surviving Edo-period daimyo gardens, created in 1702 by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a close advisor to the fifth Tokugawa shogun. Designed as a strolling-style landscape garden, it features a large central pond, artificial hills, and winding paths inspired by classical Japanese poetry. As visitors walk through the carefully composed scenery, shifting perspectives reveal poetic references and refined aesthetics that reflect the cultural sophistication of the Edo elite.