In the late 17th century Honjo Inabanokami Munesuke, a clan leader, received this land from the shogunate to use as a suburban residence. He used the land to construct a garden in a style closely resembling the nearby Kiyosumi Gardens.
The pond at the center of the garden is the shape of a heart and is filled directly with water from the Sumida River, and thus rises and falls with the river’s tide. This garden was re-modeled in 1894 by Zenjiro Yasuda, founder of the now dissolved Yasuda financial group (one of the four zaibatsu of Imperial Japan). In accordance with his dying wish, it was granted to Tokyo City in 1922 and subsequently opened to the public in 1927 under its current name, after a reconstruction process following its destruction in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. It was handed over to Sumida City in 1967 and in 1971 fully restored to its original condition having suffered damage during the war and from the pollution of Sumida River.
