Six Things a Garden Should Be

The garden begins where the castle grounds end. In the middle is a wide pond called Kasumigaike. There is a stone bridge, a pine leaning over the water, and a famous stone lantern on two legs at the edge. Under the surface, koi turned in slow circles. One was old and black.

Kenrokuen means the garden of six attributes. An old Chinese idea says a perfect garden needs six things, and no garden can have them all. They are space and quiet, human art and old age, plenty of water and a wide view. The lords of this city worked for almost two centuries to have all six. The garden opened to the public in eighteen seventy-four.

The strangest work here starts every year on the first of November. Gardeners put a tall pole next to each big pine. Then they drop ropes from the top to the ends of the branches. The tree ends up inside a huge cone of rope. Snow here is wet and heavy, and the branches would break without help.

The most famous pine needs about eight hundred ropes. The cones stay up until March. Polly watched the koi turn, and turn again.