Kawachi Fujien

Kawachi Fujien ( Japanese 河内藤園 , German Kawachi Wisteria Garden ) is a park in the city of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan .

Location of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The park is privately owned, but accessible for an entrance fee. The entrance fee varies from 300 yen to 900 yen.

history

Since reading a children's book, Masao Higuchi had the desire to create something lasting. He developed the idea that a park with Wisteria would inspire many people. He convinced his family of the project and in 1968 he and his eldest son began clearing the site. The planned area turned out to be rocky, which made the work difficult. After a few years the work could be finished and a Wisteria tunnel with an area of approx. 1000 m² was finished.

When the Kawachi dam was built during this time and the old village of the same name sank in the floods, one of the wisteria trees was carefully transplanted from there and is one of the oldest trees in the park today.

Today the park has 120-year-old trees and several Wisteria tunnels.

geography

The park is located on the slope of the Gongen-yama ( 権現山 ) above the new settlement Kawachi in a valley, west of the reservoir of Kawachi ( 河内貯水池 Kawachi chosuichi ) at an altitude of approx. 200 m . 20 species of the genus wisteria with 150 specimens are gathered in the park. As the most famous:

Chinese wisteria from China
Japanese wisteria as native Japanese wisteria (Fuji).

The tunnels are created by planting the climbing plants on the slope and supported by climbing frames. The flower panicles that hang down from there reach lengths between 10 cm and one meter. In addition to several Wisteria tunnels, there is also a maple grove with 700 trees that present a spectacular play of colors in autumn.

visit

The best time to visit is from the end of April to the beginning of May, when the wisteria cause an explosion of colors over a period of around 20 days and give off their heavy scent. The Wisteria Festival usually ends with the " Golden Week " (April 27-29).

From Tokyo , the park can be reached in five hours with the Nozomi ( のぞみ , English "wish") high-speed train .