Maenohara Onsen Sayano Yudokoro: A Mossy Dry Landscape Garden Hidden in Tokyo's Itabashi District

Maenohara Onsen Sayano Yudokoro is nestled in Tokyo's Itabashi district, featuring a garden called "Meiseki no Niwa" designed by contemporary landscape architect Motomi Oguchi. This garden, which has won the Japan Garden Association Award, is a dry landscape garden centered around unique stones, complemented by the dynamic presence of moss. The interplay of hard stone structures and soft moss creates a harmonious blend of traditional and modern aesthetics. The garden is a renovation of an old residential garden originally built in 1947, adopting a tsukiyama-style dry landscape design. At its center stands a vertical stone (representing Mount Horai) with a waterfall beneath it, while tea sand simulates flowing water. An L-shaped dry stream extends from the tatami room to the depths of the garden. Unique stones such as Kyoto Kurama stone, Iyo red stone, and Koshu granite serve as visual focal points, while moss acts as a "natural palette," growing subtly in the crevices of stone arrangements, slopes, and small gravel areas. High-growing moss covers bare soil, forming patches of varying green shades that soften the rigid lines of the stones. Moss balls hanging from the eaves of the tea room and moss clusters along the dry stream edges evoke the moist atmosphere of mountain landscapes within the urban space. Designer Motomi Oguchi emphasizes the "negative space" created by moss to highlight the prominence of the "meiseki" (notable stones). Large areas of tea sand represent "rivers," with moss strategically placed at key points such as the waterfall base and stone foundations, creating a layered effect of "stones as the skeleton, moss as the flesh." This restrained approach adheres to the "wabi-sabi" aesthetics of dry landscape gardens while allowing the moss to bring seasonal dynamism to the garden. In spring, the fresh green moss contrasts with the weathered stones, while in autumn and winter, the moss turns brown, blending with the tea sand to evoke a desolate beauty. The onsen facilities also reflect a deep appreciation for moss. Gravel areas are intentionally left to allow moss to grow, and transparent glass partitions minimize reflective interference, showcasing the texture of moss. After soaking in the hot springs, guests can dine at "Kakiten-sha" and enjoy the view of the dialogue between moss and stones through floor-to-ceiling windows. This urban onsen experience embodies the Japanese aesthetic of "stone and moss as art," serving as a modern example of the fusion between nature and human craftsmanship.