Japanese Gardens – Part III – Ohori Park; Fukuoka

Ohori Park – North Entrance
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

O.K., MAYBE I am stretching this one a bit. This one really is a park, rather than the traditional Japanese Architectural Garden. No worries. I will follow soon with yet another traditional Japanese Garden. In the meantime, this one was really a great opportunity for visitors to and citizens of Fukuoka alike.

Ohori Park
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

THE SIXTH largest city in Japan at 2.5 million, the literature I found says Fukuoka is a “less crowded feeling” city. There are numerous nice parks and spaces interspersed among old castles, temples and shrines. Ohori is probably the largest and most popular park. It is situated on the grounds of the old Fukuoka Castle. We took the subway train from the city center to the Ohori Park stop. From there, we walked the length of the park. Even so, we didn’t see everything. I found a cool pier out into the pond in the middle of the park – but not until after I got home. 😦  It would have made a nice photograph. We never saw it. The opening image here is just before we entered the pathway to the north entrance of the park, along a canal that fronts one of the major streets (Meiji-dori Avenue). As much as the flowers and color drew my eye, I liked the cherry blossoms floating in the foreground water. Without the blossoms, I likely would have cropped (or composed) this image without the vast expanse of water in the foreground. The evidence of a large city (2.5 million) makes up a large portion of the background. As I will report in a later instalment of my second blog (“I Am A Celebrity”), our plans for this city were thwarted by what we perceive as poor planning and handling by Holland America. It is too bad, because it was easy to see that there was much to do in this city.

Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

WHILE OHORI really is a park, there were certainly some nice garden spaces on the grounds. At the entrance nearest our subway stop, we passed a children’s play area, and then entered what I could describe as the main promenade around the outskirts of the pond, running the apparent length of the park. The pond is very large. We had stopped at an information center in the city to get some directions and idea of sights to see and I picked up a “Visitor’s Guide,” which gave me information I have used here. I only wish I had studied it a bit more carefully before we started our “walk in the park.” The pond is actually very large and is bifurcated by a narrow strip of land (the bridge in the foreground is an access point to that strip). There is a fair amount of kayaking activity, and the “swan-themed” peddle boats appear to be quite popular.

Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

TO THE east of the promenade, there were pathways up to large open fields. There were a few people there, but true to the legend of the city, it was not crowded. We were there, of course, on a weekday, and weekends or official events may have yielded a different result. At one end of the fields, there was an area that looked like it could be rented (or maybe first come, first serve?), with a number of partially covered seating areas, and facilities to cook and set up what we could only imagine must be picnics. None were in use the day we were there.

Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

WE TURNED up a wide walkway to our east, which was marked as the way to Fukuoka Castle. Many years ago, there was a previous castle on the grounds (Najima-Mon Castle). Long since gone, the former occupant moved to the nearby Fukuota Castle. But left for posterity was a side gate to the old castle. You can see that the gate (as was, presumably, the castle itself) was constructed in the traditional manner, with wood and the classic Japanese architecture. Being reasonably certain that when the castle was originally built in the late 1500’s there was no electricity, I took the liberty to clone out some electrical cables and other evidence. At the time, I wasn’t highly motivated by the shot, and only took a single snap. Unfortunately, I got lazy, and we were on the move, so my shot actually cut off the bottom right corner of the roof. Not that I think a “confession” is necessary (nor even perhaps the correct word), but I used Photoshop’s (relatively) new AI generative technology to create some space on the right, by dragging a small portion to the right with the crop tool and asked PS to “generate” the image. It did a creditable job with the roof as well as the rest of the image. However, as I have noted here in the past, the “generated” portion of the image is lower resolution than (even at 20mp) the original and a pixel peeper can see that.

Najima Gate – Ohori Park
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

FOLLOWING THIS path, we eventually reached the main street through the park (I would love to tell you the name, but on the Visitor’s Guide, it is unmarked, and Google Maps only gives its name in Konji characters 🙂 ).  On the way, we passed the large flower bed and I couldn’t pass it by without making a few images. My favorite of the group was the one here. I kind of like the solitary woman with the umbrella at the top of the small hill where the bed of flowers were planted. This was as close as we got to a true “Japanese Garden” setting in the park. A bit of after-the-fact recon tells me that had we continued south on the pond promenade, we would have reached the actual Ohori Park Japanese Garden. If we ever return, I want to follow the promenade to the garden, and I want to access the middle section of the pond and walk it, also.

Wisteria Trellis
Ohori Park
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

ALONG THE street and just across from the Fukuoka Castle and a large athletic complex (Heiwadai Stadium) there is a beautiful post and beam trellis that is covered with Wisteria. It was mostly in bloom, and with the shadows thrown on the grass below and the color of the blooms, made for an interesting photograph.

Heiwadai Athletic Stadium Entrance
Ohori Park
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]

WE TOOK a taxi back to the ship from there. While we waited for one, I wandered along the sidewalk outside the athletic stadium. The stadium complex is not really anything photographically stimulating, but I continue to be impressed by the effort and attention to detail the Japanese people put into their public spaces. Equally noteworthy is how absolutely clean every public area is. Ohori Park is a very nice place and would definitely warrant at visit (and in my case, a return visit).

Ohori Park
Fukuoka, Japan
[Copyright Andy Richards 2024
All Rights Reserved]ori Park