Okayama Korakuen Chrysanthemum Exhibition

Okayama Korakuen ranks with Kairakuen in Mito and Kenrokuen in Kanazawa as one of Japan's three great gardens, laid out in the Edo period at the order of the Okayama daimyo Ikeda Tsunamasa. The prefectural chrysanthemum exhibition held within it gathers a large field of entries from local growers who have tended their plants for a full year, ranging from single great blooms to small-flowered forms carrying countless flowers, competing by category. What distinguishes this show is the setting: the pots are placed within the garden's broad lawns and ponds, with Okayama Castle borrowed as backdrop, so the flowers are seen as part of the landscape rather than in an exhibition hall. The dates overlap the first turn of the autumn colour. Many visitors combine it with the adjacent castle, and the garden is easily reached from the city centre.