Koishikawa Botanical Gardens

The Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Bunkyo ward belongs to the University of Tokyo and is the oldest botanical garden in Japan. It traces back to a medicinal herb garden laid out in 1684 by the Tokugawa shogunate, supplying the Tokugawa hospital, and passed to the Imperial University in 1877. It contains the historic Newton apple tree, a clone of the original in Lincolnshire, and a ginkgo where the male spermatozoid of the species was discovered in 1896. Visitors walk across 16 hectares of terraced slopes, a Japanese landscape garden, a wetland and an 1939 Western-style administration building. In April, cherry trees bloom along the main path.