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 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.

A central island is connected to the bank by a series of stepping stones, which were formerly used to grind the pigments used in dyeing.

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