Isui-en

Isui-en (依水園, Isuien) is a Japanese garden located in Nara, the old capital of Japan near Kyōto.

The name Sanshu-tei ("house of the three wonders") was given by Mokuan, the large priest of the Manpuku-ji temple of the school Zen Oubaku with Uji.

In 1939, the two gardens were bought and combined by Jyunsaku Nakamura, a merchant of Nara, to provide a site for the attached Neiraku Museum (寧楽美術館), which hosts a collection of traditional Japanese ceramics.

The house of the Hyoshin-tei, along with the west pool, were designed by Kimura Seibei, another garden architect from Urasenke.

The composition of the landscape incorporates the roof of the large southern door (Nandaimon) of the temple Tōdai-ji, as well as the three higher hills overhanging Nara: the mounts Wakakusa, Kasuga, and Mikasa.

View of Isui-en Garden during early fall, towards the Nandaimon gate, and hills of Nara
One of the tea houses
A path through the garden moss