There are 37 botanical gardens throughout Japan devoted to displaying the plants and poetry of the Man’yōshū, of which 27 are open to the public. In July 2016, I visited ten of these for research purposes, in various parts of Japan’s main island, Honshu, and one of its others, Shikoku.
Each of these gardens has a page on WakaPoetry.net, giving the details about the garden, its location, opening times, admission charges (if any), access instructions, and a Google Map. There is also information about the principal plants on display, and links to translated poems.
There are separate image galleries for each garden, to give you an idea of what each one looks like in July.
The gardens are:
- Akatsuka Garden of Man’yō and Medicinal Plants
- Ichikawa Municipal Man’yō Botanical Garden
- Musashino Kokubunji Man’yō Botanical Garden
- Shōwa Man’yō Forest
- Futagami Mountain Park: Man’yō Botanical Garden
- Man’yō Forest Park
- Kii Fudoki no Oka: Man’yō Botanical Garden
- Asuka Historical Park: Man’yō Botanical Garden Path
- Ehime Man’yō Garden
- Kasuga Grand Shrine Sacred Garden: Man’yō Botanical Garden
For more detailed information on Man’yō Botanical Gardens as tourist facilities in Japan, see the first publication arising from the research:
McAuley, Thomas (2016) ‘Viewing a Myriad Leaves: Man’yō Botanical Gardens in Japan‘. International Journal of Contents Tourism 1 (2): 1-16.