Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (新宿御苑) is a large park with an eminent garden in Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tokyo. The gardens which is 58.3 hectares in size, and with a circumference of 3.5 km, blend three distinct styes:

a) French Formal
b) English Landscape and
c) Japanese Traditional

The gardens have more than 20,000 trees, including approximately 1,500 cherry trees which bloom from late March (Shidare or Weeping Cherry), to early April (Somei or Tokyo Cherry), and on to late April (Kanzan Cherry). Other trees found here include the majestic Himalayan cedars, which soar above the rest of the trees in the park, tulip trees, cypresses, and plane trees, which were first planted in Japan in the Imperial Gardens.

Horticulture work has been going on in the greenhouses in the gardens since 1892. The present greenhouse, built in the 1950s has a stock of over 1,700 tropical and subtropical plant species on permanent display.

The gardens have three access gates:

Shinjuku Gate
Okido Gate and
Sendagaya Gate.

The gardens are a favourite hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) spot, and large crowds can be found in the park during cherry blossom season. With its proximity to Shinjuku ni-chome, Tokyo's best-known gay village, the park is also popular among gay men, and mass cherry-blossom viewing parties are organized in the park by local gay bars.

HISTORY
1590 - Part of a grant of land that the great warlord who ruled Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, made to one of his vassals, Naito Kiyoshige.

1872 - The site of Japan's first early experiments with foreign horticulture and forestry at the beginning of Japan's modernization

1879 - Became the Shinjuku Imperial Botanical Garden under the Imperial Household Agency.

1906 - Became the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden after being remodeled by the French landscaper Henri Martine, a professor at the Versailles horticultural college. Its opening coincided with Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and was attended by the Emperor himself.

1917 - Became famous for its cherry blossoms, and from 1929 for its crysanthemums, both of which are still outstanding features of the gardens today. Until 1926 it even boasted a small zoo.

1947 - Changed from Imperial to National Land.

1949 - Opened to the public under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

1971 - Administration was taken over by the Ministry of the Environment.


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