Around 100 rose varieties in front of a stone Western mansion, in northern Tokyo.
¥70 for visitors aged 65 and over
If you have been in Japan long enough to find hanami season crowded and expensive, autumn roses are the quiet alternative. Kyu-Furukawa Gardens (旧古河庭園) in Kita City holds its Autumn Rose Festival (秋のバラフェスティバル) from 10 October to 6 November, and the whole thing costs ¥150 to enter. Below is what is on, when, and how to plan the visit around it.
The basics: dates, hours and admission
No reservation is needed for general entry. You pay at the gate and walk in.
| Event | Autumn Rose Festival (秋のバラフェスティバル) |
|---|---|
| Dates | Saturday 10 October – Friday 6 November |
| Hours | 9:00 – 17:00 (last entry 16:30) |
| Venue | Kyu-Furukawa Gardens 1-27-39 Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo |
| Admission | ¥150 general ¥70 for age 65 and over |
| Free entry | Elementary school age and younger; junior high students living or studying in Tokyo |
Why this garden is worth the trip
Most Tokyo rose gardens give you roses and not much else. Here the roses sit on a terraced Western-style garden directly below a stone mansion, so the flowers always have architecture behind them. That combination is the signature view of the place, and the reason photographers show up at opening time.
The garden has roughly 100 rose varieties and 200 bushes, in reds, pinks and yellows. Walk past the terraces and the ground drops away into a Japanese strolling garden built around a pond, which looks and feels nothing like the terraces above it. Getting both a Western garden and a Japanese one on a single ¥150 ticket is unusual even by Tokyo standards.
There is an anniversary angle this year too: 2026 marks 70 years since the garden opened to the public, and 20 years since it was designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty. Several of the programmes below exist because of that.
Early-morning scent walk (advance application)
The one programme worth rearranging your morning for is the garden walk built around scent, held before normal opening hours. Roses smell strongest in the cool early morning, and staff walk you through the beds explaining what you are smelling. Participants are also allowed inside the flower beds, which are off limits at any other time.
| Dates | Meeting time | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 24 October Wed 28 October Sat 31 October | 8:00 (about 60 minutes) | Around 30 people per day Advance application required Free to join, but the admission fee is separate |
Because it starts before the gates open to everyone else and capacity is capped at about 30 a day, this is the one to apply for first. Application details are on the official announcement page linked at the end of this article.
Free clarinet concert on 18 October
On Sunday 18 October the lawn area hosts an autumn rose concert by the clarinet quartet Quartetto MOMO. There are two performances, at 12:00 and at 15:00, each running about 30 minutes.
No application is required. Turn up at the lawn and you can listen. The one thing to keep in mind is that it is cancelled in the rain, so if the forecast is bad, treat the concert as a bonus rather than the reason for your trip.
Rose market and volunteer garden tours
A rose garden market runs through the festival period, selling rose-themed goods and sweets. It is a reasonable place to pick up a small souvenir if you are visiting with friends or family from overseas.
Volunteer garden guides also lead tours during the period, centred on the Japanese garden and covering its history and the spots worth stopping at. If you have walked past a pond garden before and felt you were missing the point, this is the fix. The tours are guided in Japanese, but the pace is slow and the route is visual, so intermediate learners generally follow it fine.
70th-anniversary digital stamp rally
To mark 70 years of public opening, the garden is running a digital stamp rally under the name Wa to Yo no Niwa Meguri Cho (和と洋の庭めぐり帖), a strolling record of the Japanese and Western gardens. You move between points in the grounds, answer quizzes and take photos to collect stamps, picking up the history of the site as you go.
Collect them all and you are entered into a draw for a commemorative item; even if your name is not drawn, you’ll still receive digital content. You need a smartphone to take part.
Getting there and planning the day
The garden sits between three stations, so wherever you are coming from in Tokyo there is usually a line that works.
| Kami-Nakazato Station (JR Keihin-Tohoku Line) | 7 minutes on foot |
|---|---|
| Nishigahara Station (Tokyo Metro Namboku Line) | 7 minutes on foot |
| Komagome Station (JR Yamanote Line) | 12 minutes on foot |
A practical way to build the day: arrive close to 9:00 while the light is still low and the terraces are empty, do the roses first, then drop into the Japanese garden, and finish at the market. Half a day is enough.
Since you are only spending ¥150 on admission, it pairs well with other low-cost Tokyo outings. A public bathhouse afterwards is a classic combination, and there is a city-wide discount worth knowing about in our guide to the ¥300 sento coupon valid at 383 Tokyo bathhouses.
Coming in from outside Tokyo? Autumn is a good season for rail deals. See the three-day unlimited JR local train pass for ¥7,850 if you are travelling slowly, or the half-price shinkansen fares under the Tokudane Special if you want speed. If the trip turns into an overnight stay, our Marriott Bonvoy promotion guide covers how to register for bonus points before you book.
FAQ
- Q. Do I need a reservation to visit during the festival?
- No. General entry needs no reservation, and you pay the admission fee at the gate. Only the early-morning garden walk requires an advance application.
- Q. How much does it cost to get in?
- Admission is ¥150 for general visitors and ¥70 for visitors aged 65 and over. Children of elementary school age and younger, and junior high school students living or studying in Tokyo, enter free.
- Q. What are the opening hours?
- The garden is open from 9:00 to 17:00 during the festival, with last entry at 16:30.
- Q. Can I still see roses after 6 November?
- Flower numbers gradually decrease once the festival ends, but roses can usually still be enjoyed until around early December, alongside the autumn foliage. Check the official site or official X account for current conditions before you go.
- Q. What happens to the concert if it rains?
- The autumn rose concert on 18 October is cancelled in the event of rain. No application is needed, so simply gather at the lawn area on the day if the weather holds.
- Q. What do I need to join the digital stamp rally?
- A smartphone. You collect stamps by moving around the grounds and taking part in quizzes and photo tasks, and completing the set enters you into a draw for a commemorative item.
Official information
Application details for the early-morning garden walk, current bloom status and any changes to the programme are published by the garden itself. Confirm before you travel: