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Tenshin-en, Boston, MA

Photo: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Sports & Outdoors

Tenshin-en

A dry-landscape Japanese garden at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, named for curator Kakuzō Okakura.

465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 · Boston, MA

About Tenshin-en

Tenshin-en, whose name translates roughly as Garden of the Heart of Heaven, is a contemplative Japanese garden at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It opened in 1988 and was designed as a viewing garden in the karesansui, or dry-landscape, style by Professor Kinsaku Nakane of Kyoto. It honors Kakuzō Okakura, who worked at the museum from 1904 until 1913. The garden uses more than 200 stones, a dry waterfall, and island stones to suggest natural scenery within a small space. Its plants come from both America and Japan, and cherries, Japanese maples, and pines mark the seasons. The design blends Japanese symbolism with a feeling of New England's rocky coast and forests. A yearlong renovation finished with a reopening in April 2015.

  • #japanese-garden
  • #karesansui
  • #contemplative
  • #museum-garden
  • #Boston

What's around here?

The closest stops to Tenshin-en, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

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    Transit: reachable by public transit

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