Kumamoto Hosokawa Bonseki Art Class & Suizenji Jojuen Garden Admission Ticket

Hosokawa-style Bonseki unfolding on a tray, a landscape to enjoy in Kumamoto

This is a class where you can learn Hosokawa-style Bonseki directly at the serene Suizenji Jojuen. Bonseki is a traditional Japanese miniature garden art that expresses landscapes such as mountains, rivers, islands, and seas using white sand, gravel, and small stones on a black tray. Hosokawa-style is a particularly well-known and formal school. The experience begins with a simple greeting and orientation, allowing you to slowly immerse yourself in the atmosphere while listening to the history and background of Hosokawa-style Bonseki from a professional instructor. Next, you will receive detailed guidance on how to hold traditional tools, the movement of your hand when pouring sand, and the key points for arranging stones, as you create your own landscape on the tray. Drawing waves and paths with white sand, and expressing mountains and islands with small stones, you will forget about everyday thoughts for a while and focus only on your fingertips, making it a very meditative time.

From miniature landscape to real garden, a stroll through Suizenji Jojuen

After the Bonseki class, you can freely explore the Suizenji Jojuen Garden, which is included in the admission ticket. Suizenji Jojuen is an elegant strolling-style Japanese garden that Hosokawa Tadatoshi began constructing in the 17th century. With a pond filled with groundwater from Mount Aso at its center, hills, islands, bridges, and pine trees are connected, recreating the old Japanese landscape in miniature. In particular, the artificial hills inspired by the 53 stations of the Tokaido and Mount Fuji are impressive, and the garden also houses Izumi Shrine, which enshrines the Hosokawa family, and a Noh stage, allowing you to feel the history and culture of Kumamoto just by taking a walk. Recalling the Bonseki landscape you created on the tray while walking through the actual garden will be a lingering finish that completes this experience in a more three-dimensional way.

A quick look at the schedule

• Greeting & Orientation

• Explanation of Hosokawa-style Bonseki history

• Guidance on how to use traditional tools

• Create your own miniature landscape using sand & stones (Bonseki experience)

• Closing greetings & commemorative photo shoot

• Free walk after entering Suizenji Jojuen Garden (free time)