Some places guard their beauty like a jealous deity – and Kunen-an takes this to extremes. With only 9 autumn days during November to witness its famed autumn foliage, this garden feels less like a tourist spot and more like a whispered pact between nature and history. Here’s the stories of how we found ourselves Saga’s best-kept secret – complete with drizzle-dodging, ceramic treasure hunts, and a 800-year-old tree that reminds me of traces of spirituality everywhere.

Our trip to was not booked solely to meet Kunen-an's 9-day autumn window, but as soon as the joy I had upon discovering the coincidence of our days Kyushu meeting the said window washed over me, I knew we had to be here. Overjoyed with the fact that this would be a rare sight and easily be the highlight of our second half of the journey, I was certain that visiting Kunen-an is nothing lesser than my spiritual calling. With a nice breakfast from our hotel filling our tummies, we drove all the way from our hotel and made seeing Kunen-an the first thing to do in the morning.

Located in Kanzaki of Saga prefecture, Kunen-an is accessible by public transportation. However, since we have rented a car, I've decided for our trio to drive to Yoshinogarirekishi Koen Nishiguchirinji Parking Lot after doing some girl math. It's a temporary lot that charges us 500 yen for each car, but offers free shuttle for us to reach Niiyama Park where we can enjoy a scenic walk towards Kunen-an. Public buses would be 300 yen per person, so that saves us 400 yen in total! Not much, but enough to get us some snacks! It rained as soon as we parked our car, but luckily enough, it turned into drizzles throughout our bus ride, and stopped the moment we arrived at Kunen-an!

Commissioned in 1900 by Meiji-era tycoon Itami Yataro, Kunen-an (九年庵) translates to “Nine-Year Hermitage” – a nod to the obsessive timeline its creator imposed. Itami's family ran businesses, and other than that, Yataro is well-known with his involvement with railway companies as well as his efforts to electrify Saga as the first boss-man of Nishitetsu. While it was uncertain of the exact reason Yataro decided to build Kunen-an, but it was certain that Kunen-an revealed the poetic side of this tycoon, where it was a retreat where traditional boardroom ruthlessness met tea ceremony refinement.

Unlike typical Japanese gardens built for shoguns or monks, this 68,000㎡ retreat was a passion project by a banking magnate seeking mountain solace. In return, it gifted us a shakkei masterpiece that blended the distant Mount Sefuri and the Ariake Sea into its design, creating a panorama that feels both intimate and infinite.

Kunen-an’s beauty lies in its shakkei (借景) design, where the kanji characters literally means "borrow" and "scenery" respectively. Shakkei is a 17th-century gardening philosophy that “borrows” distant landscapes to create infinite vistas. As we wandered the mossy paths and navigated between visitors to find a photo spot for our new profile photo, we couldn't help but to admire at the genius of Kurume-no-Hotori framing Saga’s wilderness like a living painting: peaks of Mount Sefuri’s became the garden’s backdrop, while the Ariake Sea’s tidal flats reflected in the villa’s koi ponds. This wasn’t just landscaping, it was a gateway to leap into dimensions of space and time.

Rejecting rigid Edo-era styles, Hotori pioneered Shizen-ryū (“Natural School”) – a philosophy honoring existing topography. By aligning maple groves with the sunrise and shaping stone lanterns to mimic far-off islands, Hotori made seasons and geography conspire to humble visitors. Hotori’s masterstroke? The “hidden asymmetry”. Though the villa appears haphazardly placed, each thatched roof aligns with a celestial event – the east wing catches autumn moonrises, while the west veranda frames winter solstice sunsets. The thatched-roof villa itself is a study in rustic elegance. Different from those you can find in the popular UNESCO World Heritage Shiakawago, what you can find here in Kunen-an is built with:

But the real star, in my humble opinion, isn't something seen from the eye level. It's way beneath – the garden’s “moss carpet”. The velvety green expanse made me completely, and I do mean utterly incapable of resisting the temptations to squat down just to have a feel – a little chilly perhaps from the drizzles earlier, and oddly addictive to touch, and they aren't as prickly as they may seem if looked from close. With all of these pieced together, and perhaps more hidden details that have gone unnoticed, calling this place beauty disguised as chaos may be an understatement as the details here left me squinting everywhere – even at shadows like a cat intrigued with absolutely anything in sight.

I did mention that you can visit Kunen-an within the span of 9 days every autumn, but there's something else I should also tell you – it also opens for three days during spring, every May! Even though Kunen-an’s autumn fame overshadows its spring rebirth, springtime in Kunen-an gives you a breath of freshness that you'd want to stay here for more than just an hour.

In November, the garden blazes with 300 maple varieties – from yamamomiji (mountain crimson) to oosakazuki (giant teacup leaves). But May’s “limited green viewing” offers subtler magic: scents of morning dew, baby koi darting through duckweed, and moss so vivid it glows like jade under rain. I don't know about you, but I swear spring’s shinryoku (新緑, which means new green) smells different in Japan – imagine a crispness in the air laced with freshness, and perhaps also listening to the flowing waters from a hidden, perhaps secret corner near Niiyama Shrine. Doesn't that sound refreshingly pleasant itself?

While we may have missed it by six months, but hey, where autumn screams, spring sighs. A truth as bitter as the matcha we drank: even paradise has its price. Guess I'll have no choice but to plan another trip during spring, if I can ever avoid the Golden Week seasonal charges when Kunen-an opens for spring, that is.

Nearby Kunen-an, there are many shrines surrounding it. Let's be real, my stamina isn't great after days and days of walking, and by the time we're here, it's almost lunch time, so I didn't have the stamina to visit more temples other than Niiyama Shrine and Jizoin (and purchased more omamori, for once again). However, one popular place that many would visit while being here is no other than Niiyama Shrine – a spiritual heavyweight disguised as a quiet grove. 

Why Niiyama Shrine, you asked? It's because not only is the shrine close to Kunen-an, it is also home to:

If you realized how Ondamai Festival is held during the year of Monkey, then you'll probably figure that the deity here in Niiyama Shrine is, in fact, a monkey, and you can find monkey statues everywhere around Niiyama Shrine. While the walking space near the main building isn't exactly what I'd call spacious, it is still a pleasant visit. I couldn't help but to feel the air humming with spiritual energy that’s equal parts soothing and spine-tingling when I glanced at the back of the main shrine building right after purchasing my omamori, and decided to trust my intuition to take a look behind the main building. 

Practical Magic: Parking, Rain, and Ceramic Souvenirs

Manhole

• 🚗 Drive 25 mins to Yoshinogarirekishi Koen Nishiguchirinji Parking Lot. Parking is ¥500 (Map Code: 37 541 813*16)
• 🚌 Board the free shuttle bus that drops you off at Niiyama Park
• ☔ Pray to weather gods – our drizzle stopped magically as the bus arrived at Niiyama Park!

A rainbow before we're headed to our next destination, what a blessing

Key Details for Time Travelers