Fairytale garden

Wisteria Tunnel is located at the Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Fukuoka Kitakyusyu, Japan (a 12-hour drive from Tokyo). The flowering Japanese wisteria hang overhead and the different colored rows create a spectacular place to walk through. Wisteria, or wisteria - one of the most beautiful climbing plants, is a large deciduous climber with a hard woody stem. Wisteria flowers with delicate sweet flavor, are collected in large hanging brushes of different colors: white, blue, purple, violet-blue, purple, pink or purple. The best time of the year to go from late April to mid May (depends on the weather each year). The peak is normally at end of April to the Golden Week. Not every year wisteria bloom so magnificently. To get to the garden from JR Yahata station, take Nishitetsu bus #56 and get off at Kawachi Elementary School. Then walk 10-15 min to the garden.

Wisteria (known as fuji in Japan) is said to be one of the archipelago's most ancient noted flowering trees, even being described in the collected poems of the Man'yōshū (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves).

Noda fuji, a species native to Japan, comes in varieties named for their cascading trusses: Usubeni fuji (light pink), Murasaki fuji (purple), Naga fuji (long), Yae kokuryu (double-petaled black dragon), and Shiro fuji (white), which come into bloom in that order. Finally, a yellow variant of wisteria (known as Golden chain or Common laburnum; [Laburnum anagyroides]) - and widely considered difficult to grow in Japan - can also be enjoyed for over a month.

Three massive wisteria trellises extend for more than 1,000㎡, in addition to a large trellis of rare double-petaled wisteria, others suitably arranged as shrubs, an 80-meter tunnel of white and yellow wisteria, and some draped like a living screens, while the early evening sight of wisteria mirrored in the pond takes on an ethereal yet breathtaking beauty.

In mid April, the light pink wisteria is the first of the season to bloom. In contrast to red wisteria (a modern variant) that is found nationwide, these Noda wisteria racemes (hanging clusters) are about 40cm and a delicate pink. And so begin the annual Wisteria Stories. At around this time, the large wisteria also starts to bloom.

Whenever we think of wisteria, our first recollection is usually of its purple cascades. Clusters of Noda wisteria hanging about 40 to 50cm are arranged uniquely within the garden. Almost as if designed as art, each stem is subtly different in color - just like any other distinctive substance, radiating a singular tone (purple, bluish purple, and light bluish purple) to emphasize their beauty.

In February 1996, four large wisteria vines, which have helped define the character of our gardens, were transferred from Asakura town in Ashikaga city to their current site in Hasama town (20km away). They have proved popular over this last decade. The trellis, which covered 72㎡ a decade ago, has now expanded more than tenfold to some 1,000㎡. This is said to be the most beautiful wisteria in the world. 

Walking through the 80-meter tunnel of white wisteria, gently assailed by its sweet aroma, is all but guaranteed to leave you feeling exultant. The Yae kokuryu (Double-petaled black dragon) wisteria is thought to be a mutation of Kokuryu fuji, which is in the Noda Wisteria family. This double-petaled wisteria is reputedly the largest one in Japan, and has the strongest aroma, appearing almost like a bunch of grapes from a little distance. It is much appreciated. Many people can be heard to profess: "I've never seen this before," while admiring the trellis in the middle of the garden.

Golden chain [Laburnum anagyroides vossi] was said to be imported to Japan in around 1970, and it is found in Austria and Switzerland. This has the largest and longest clusters of the Laburnum anagyroides family. It is known as "yellow wisteria" in this garden, since that is its common name in Japan. Our 80-meter tunnel of yellow wisteria is the longest one in Japan, and comes into bloom from early May - representing the final chapter in the wisteria Stories. About 200 yellow wisterias can be enjoyed until around the third week of May.