Chiran is a former castle town or Tojo which were built throughout Satsuma (a feudal area that included most of the island of Kyushu including Kagoshima prefecture), during the Edo Period (1600-1868). The Tojos were fortified towns which typically consisted of the lord's manor house at the center surrounded by a Fumoto area, the homes of his faithful samurai. In Chiran, this village plan is faithfully and tastefully maintained. There are a collection of samurai homes and gardens built along a central walkway.
Each garden is quite distinct. Some with koi ponds and others with dry waterfalls and raked sand floors. The conifers are grown quite delibarately to give them their distinct shapes and cloudlike needle clusters. They use bamboo frames to train the branches of the trees upward resulting in all of the needles pointing skyward.
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