SHIBA RIKIU GARDEN. This is a comparatively small garden, covering only twelve acres, now occupied by a modern villa belonging to H.I.H. Prince Arisugawa. Anciently, the site was given to Kato Yoshiakira by one of the Shoguns, and about the year 1755 his grandson joined a branch of the Shogun's family called the Shimizu-Ke, or the House of Shimizu. In 1847 the property passed into the hands of the Daimio of Kishiu, the original owner of the Akasaka Rikiu, by whom it was held until the time of the Restoration, when it received its name of Shiba Rikiu, or Detached Palace of Shiba. Unlike most other noted landscape gardens, no special description of the Shiba Rikiu garden appears to have been published. In character it is not unlike the garden of the Hama Rikiu, having inlets from the sea, supplying a small lake dotted with pineclad islets, and surrounding hills and mounds adorned with arbours from which sea views across the Tokio Bay are obtained.
