Garyu Sanso is a historic villa and traditional Japanese garden located in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island. Built in 1907, this wooden architectural masterpiece overlooks the scenic Hiji River and features traditional tea houses, stone bridges, and meticulously landscaped gardens.
Garyu Sanso is open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (last entry at 4:30 PM). Adult admission is 550 yen, high school students pay 220 yen, and elementary/junior high students pay 110 yen. The villa may close during severe weather conditions.
To reach Garyu Sanso from Tokyo or Osaka, take the JR Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen to Okayama, then transfer to JR予讃線 (Yosan Line) to Iyo-Ozu Station. From Iyo-Ozu Station, Garyu Sanso is a 25-minute walk or 5-minute taxi ride. The total journey takes approximately 4-5 hours from Tokyo and 3-4 hours from Osaka.
The best time to visit Garyu Sanso is during spring (early April) for cherry blossoms and autumn (mid to late November) for fall foliage. The traditional architecture looks stunning against the seasonal colors, and the riverside location provides excellent photography opportunities during these peak seasons.
Garyu Sanso is a day-visit attraction and does not offer overnight accommodation. However, Ozu City has several hotels and ryokan nearby including Hotel Ozu, traditional Japanese inns along the Hiji River, and guesthouses within walking distance of the historic villa.
Here, you can enjoy traditional Japanese gardens and architecture.
The Japanese buildings feature various ingenious designs, and we can enjoy learning their secrets through the audio guide.
The atmosphere changes with the seasons, making it a place you'll want to visit multiple times throughout the year. The admission fee is 550 yen, but if you're also planning to visit nearby attractions like Ōzu Castle, the combo set ticket offers a better deal.
The plants within the garden are extremely valuable, and even those that may look like weeds have taken over 100 years to grow. For this reason, when walking through the garden, be sure to stay on the stone paths.
The road was a bit hard to drive, very narrow and also a single lane. Not much parking tho. The place was beautiful and well preserved. You need to pay for every place you visit. So we just choose one place first to see if we would like to continue the others. In the end we just visited one.
