Japanese apricotTraditional garden plants

The Japanese apricot is originally from China. There are two types of Japanese apricot – those bred to bear fruit for eating and those bred to flower for beauty. Fruiting Japanese apricots were brought to Japan over 2,000 years ago along with wet rice agriculture. Flowering Japanese apricots brought to Japan with white flowering apricots in the Nara period (710-794). In Tang China, flowers were highly valued in aristocratic society. From the Kamakura period (1185-1333) onward, Japanese apricots became popular garden trees. (Japanese apricots, both practical in terms of being an emergency source of food and fuel as well as being aesthetically clean and pleasing, agreed with samurai ethics, and Japanese apricots began being grown on the grounds of feudal castles.)

In the Edo period, Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1661-1690) created a Japanese apricot garden at his estate in Edo during his time as a feudal lord – the garden remains today as Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. Haruta Hisato, a vassal of the shogun, opened his own Japanese apricot garden and published Inshoenbaifu* ("A Record of Elegant and Beautiful Garden Japanese Apricots") in 1822.

During the late Edo period, two Japanese apricot gardens, both called Umeyashiki (literally, “Japanese apricot estates”), were created for commoners in Kameido and Kamata, gaining much popularity. Sawara Kiku opened his Shin-umeyashiki Japanese apricot garden (today Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens) during Bunka Bunsei period to serve as a space for cultured persons to engage in exchange.

Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens contains almost 20 different varieties of Japanese apricot, with the beginning of February recommended as the best time to see them. A pamphlet on Japanese apricots is distributed at service center windows during the period when camellia may be viewed. (Flowering periods will vary by year. For details, please contact Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens.)