May is the month of colours popping🌈🪻🎨🙌🎉
A sea of nemophila (ネモフィラ), known as 'baby blue eyes', welcomes visitors to the top of Mt Hiei. Up here the flowers of early spring are still going strong.
Not native to Japan, the flower has recently grown in popularity, and can be see in gardens across the city.
#Hieizan #Kyoto #MtHiei #比叡山 #京都 #Japan #spring #babyblueeyes
🌿🍊ESTATE OF THE TRIFOLIATE ORANGES🐝😱
Shōsei-en (渉成園) is the detached garden of Higashi Hongan-ji (東本願寺).
After the land was granted to the temple by the Tokugawa shōgunate, Sen'nyo (宣如 1604-58 - the 13th abbot) asked Ishikawa Jōzan (石川丈山) to landscape gardens.
Ishikawa Jōzan (1583-1672) was an ex-soldier, Edo period intellectual and (maybe) Tokugawa spy. He is most well-known nowadays for his retreat 'Shisen-dō' (詩仙堂).
From 1653 he began to landscape what would become Shōsei-en (Kobori Enshū 小堀遠州 1579-1647 is also credited).
Centuries later a section of the Odoi (御土居) cut through what is now Shōsei-en.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's great earthen berm and moat encircled the capital, defining the boundaries of the old city and acting as a psychological (rather than physical) defense.
Camellia Tea Ceremony