Appreciation: Koishikawa korakuen in Tokyo

Discussion in 'Maples' started by emery, Jun 9, 2017.

  1. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    Back from a short trip from Tokyo and Kyoto, I took a series of snaps of maples (and sometimes landscapes) in various gardens.

    I used my OnePlus3t phone, which doesn't have the greatest camera in the world, almost entirely in auto mode, so the filtering is being determined by the machine. As time went on I managed to find a focus point that made the colors less artificial (hot), but it was boiling in Tokyo and both cities were often in full sun. So I don't represent these as anything other than my personal experience, and better pics will certainly be found on the web, tho perhaps less maple oriented!

    You'll note that I saw nearly exclusively green palmatum or amoenum -type maples in the Edo era gardens and temples. Many were grafted, with no tags or reference (probably long lost), and even more were seedlings. Many were of great size.

    Adele was working in Tokyo so these were solo tourist events while I played trailing spouse. Thanks to @opusoculi who gave invaluable advice on where to visit in both cities.

    Hope you enjoy, as I did.

    -E
     

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    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
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  2. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    More pictures. I should note also that, as well as having changed operating systems I am also using new batch resize techniques (a good idea that @wcutler suggested) so much experimentation...
     

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  3. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    Last group of photos from this beautiful small garden:
     

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  4. JT1

    JT1 Contributor 10 Years

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    Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Words can't describe the feelings these photos evoke. You have captured the spirit of the garden in some of your photos and the majestic individual maples and pines in others. Thanks for the journey! I really needed a moment of peace. Because of your generosity in capturing the moment and sharing, I can now revisit when needed. Thanks again for your generosity in sharing!

    [Maybe if you have time, you will share these in the Japanese garden forum on here too. I think both forums can benefit from your contributions.]

    @opusoculi I hope maybe you will share some more of your great photos too! :-)
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  5. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    Thanks John, I will try to share them there. This is the only garden I've managed to "organize" so far, but I will get to the others bit by bit. So glad you enjoyed, there were so many magnificent maples and views here as well as in the other gardens and temples. It's amazing, when there, to realize that this relatively small Edo garden is nestled into bustling downtown Tokyo!

    opusoculi is a very fine photographer, and my snaps will certainly pale compared to any photos he posts, so I indeed hope he'll come up with some from his archives!
     
  6. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Thank you Emery, those are quite the drifts of Japanese iris, too.
    Wondering why the one tree is wrapped.
     
  7. emery

    emery Renowned Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    So glad you enjoyed! The irises were magnificent here, although quite early in some of the other gardens, notably the Meiji shrine inner garden where they were still being planted out; the gardeners there said their peak would be around 15 June.

    As for the wrap: in the course of the visit I became very interested in the sick and infirm :), and was interested to note that the maples suffer all the same problems we see in the west (and why not?), including occasionally some pretty poor pruning which did surprise me. This tree was one of a series of 5 or so young maples planted fairly recently (within a few years anyway) along the water. They were all suffering dieback, some much worse than this one, and all wrapped. I guess they were nursery trees planted with limited roots and are just having a hard time getting climatized in a very sunny spot, where the wrap would serve to protect the young bark from scald.

    It was made from straw and hemp rope and I imagine would fall off after a few years if not renewed. Seems to be a Japanese technique (although of course we use tree wraps also) to use various natural materials, straw, cedar bark, etc. On some of the very old champion trees the entire lower parts were wrapped with what looked like polyethylene woven ag fabric, tho there were no such trees at this garden.

    -E
     
  8. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Interesting, thanks again Emery.

    I'm just learning about the Japanese irises and thinking they may need more maintenance than I can give any amount in the climate here.
    Apparently different areas of Japan have their own particular forms of the Japanese iris and the Edo (Tokyo) type would be one.

    Flower Forms of Japanese Iris - Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm

    The Siberian iris have been relatively easy.

    Maybe I should have wrapped some young maples and magnolias here, that I think may have been damaged and lost due to sunscald.
    More recently I've found shading the lower trunk with a sun tolerant plant or white perforated plastic sleeves seemed to help. Winter sun, reflecting on the snow, may be particularly damaging.
    Maybe the sun reflecting on the water of a pond can have a similar effect.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2017
  9. JT1

    JT1 Contributor 10 Years

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    I answered this question in the other thread:
    Appreciation: - Shinjuku gyoen in Toyko
    Someone asked a similar question, I hope you find the information useful.
     
  10. opusoculi

    opusoculi Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Hello Emery . I have photographs of Koraku-en garden from 1998 but they are ektachrome (argentic), i did not digitize these photos. Idem for Sinjuku guoen (it was for sakura , ending march). Sorry .
    But i will very pleased tu contribute.When you vill have made files of the gardens you saw in Kyoto, i can add some of mine i took numerically in november 2009. Naturaly i will choose most signfiant of them, because during one month i stay there i took about 3500 pics. If you wisch, open 'Appreciation' + tittle and i will add views of the same garden in the momiji-gari season.

    Koishikawa is the name of a part of Tokyo where Koraku-en is (en=garden).'Koraku-en' means literally 'garden of the interior rejoicing'. Its realy historical and important for the Edo period. Originaly it had a surface of 25 hectares, infortunatly it had been devoured by the city but now 7 hectares are definitively preserved. Its history is told in wikipedia. To have an idea of it, i must said that Koraku-en garden is structured much more than your photographs show it. Although japanese does not use the word 'structure' for a japanese garden...
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2017
  11. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Yes, thank you.
     
  12. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I have mentioned the Japanese Gardens forum to you and @emery by PM - I think that would be a good forum for the kind of appreciation photos you're talking about and you could (or I would) put a link here to your postings there.
     

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