During Japan Photo Tours with Japan Dreamscapes (JDS), we are always impressed when one location is famous during all four seasons. The Fujita Memorial Garden in Hirosaki, Aomori is one of these locations. Celebrating its 100th year since its founding, we at JDS highly recommend making it part of your Japan Photo Tour while in Japan.
The garden used to belong exclusively to Kenichi Fujita, a Hirosaki native who traveled to Tokyo for his education and ultimately became the first president of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Having graduated from Meiji Law School, he was a gifted intellect and used all of his personal faculties to improve Japan’s financial standings during the majority of his professional life. A noted philanthropist, the memorial garden stands as a testimony to his continued dedication to giving back to the people of Japan as well as those international visitors that pay his estate a visit. His life may have ended in 1946, but his legacy lives on and provides breathtaking photo ops for visitors and photographers who add the Fujita Memorial Garden to their Japan Photo Tour.
Every where you turn in the memorial park, you are greeted with another recognized cultural treasure. During the spring, you may photograph and enjoy the Shidare-zakura, the weeping cherry blossom variety. One of the most famous photo ops is a tree that is almost 200 years old that was so remarkable that as the boundaries for the grounds of the garden were first being established, that one tree served as a inspiration for other trees to be planted.
Once the cherry blossoms have shaken off their sakura, another blossoms takes the main stage in the garden, azaleas. The azaleas bloom in a scintillating pink with accents of red and the purest white your eyes have ever witnessed. Each cluster of flowers represents another opportunity to enrich your Japan Photo Tour with season flowers. Perhaps, however, you enjoy irises instead? If so, than Fujita Memorial Garden also has a portion of the garden strictly devoted to nurturing irises. From June to July, irises are in bloom and ready for you to photograph. Having visited the park, your JDS Photography Workshop Leader will recommend the best locations inside the park for you so you can maximize your time spent enjoying the aesthetic wonderland that is Fujita Memorial Park.
The park could also stand alone during a Autumn Leaves Photo Tour. The peak of the leaves changing colors to their brilliant red, gold, and orange combinations happens at subtly different times every year, but your JDS Photo Workshop Guide has more than 20 years experience with the idiosyncrasies of nature, so leave all the scheduling to us! All you need to do is be ready to take the pictures of your life!
Among the natural marvels decorating the memorial garden, there are also several carefully preserved buildings that harken back to the Edo Period in Japan. One such building is the Shofu Pavilion or Tea Room strategically situated to benefit from the plum garden to the east for some aesthetic inspiration during the blooming season and the suikinkutsu, the famous garden ornament that allows visitors to reflect upon the water splashing on the rocks when poured from the accompanying ladle. While on your Japan Photo Workshop, you may photograph the tea room, a tea ceremony conducted in the room, or use the room as the foreground in a landscape photo of a panorama photo of the park. Anyway you look at or experience the tea room, it is a feast for your senses!