Kokoen Garden is actually a collection of nine gardens laid on the site of the feudal lord’s west residence. Each garden is designed in a different Edo-era style.
This is the entrance to the smaller gardens:
Detail:
This garden had a collection of scores of different varieties of cherry trees, some of which were blossoming. We were actually unlucky – two weeks later and the whole castle would have been blossoming.
The range of cherry blossoms is amazing – Japan has the most varieties in the world:
Travels on a Small Island 2 