Niigata Japanese Gardens Road

Stretching approximately 93 miles from northern Niigata Prefecture through Niigata City, Tagami Town, Gosen City, and other areas, this sightseeing route follows National Route 290 and features a concentration of Japanese gardens and traditional architecture, including wealthy landowners’ mansions and temples. The route also passes through nostalgic scenery reminiscent of an earlier Japan, with satoyama landscapes, rice paddies, terraced fields, and rural communities. The surrounding area is also home to many high-quality natural hot springs, offering opportunities to relax in the baths between visits to gardens and historic buildings.

A wide variety of garden styles can be seen along the route. These include pond-strolling gardens, where visitors follow paths around a central pond and take in the changing scenery; dry landscape gardens, which use rocks and sand to represent mountains and rivers; and tea gardens, or roji, which embody the spirit of the tea ceremony.

One of the main appeals of Niigata’s gardens is that they are not viewed in isolation but together with their buildings. Combinations of gardens and architecturally significant structures, such as former feudal lords’ residences and oil magnates’ mansions, are a distinctive feature of Niigata. Many of the surviving gardens and buildings were created by influential local figures, including wealthy landowners and merchants. From the Meiji period through the Showa period, these projects are also said to have provided landscaping and construction work for local residents and tenant farmers, returning wealth to the community. The gardens and buildings offer insight into the culture created by these wealthy landowners and merchants, as well as their relationship with the surrounding region.