Thousands of flowers bloom in the west Tokyo mountains, but they all started from one man’s kind thoughts.

As we flip the calendar over to June, we’re getting close to the start of hydrangea season in Japan, or ajisai season, to use the flowers’ Japanese name. Many of the best places to see hydrangeas in Japan are temples or gardens that once belonged to local lords whose descendants eventually opened up their lands to the public, but the origin of Minamisawa Ajisaiyama (“Hydrangea Mountain”) in Akiruno, a district in western Tokyo, is different. This beautiful forested area is filled with hydrangeas because of a local resident named Chuichi Minamisawa, seen in the photo below.

Minamisawa’s roots in the area go back generations, and his parents’ grave is nearby, along a path that winds up into the mountains. A little over 50 years ago, he got the idea to beautify the trail, and so he started planting hydrangeas along it. A self-taught cultivator, Minamisawa started with 20 seedlings. As his experience and expertise grew, he added more every year, eventually planting thousands and thousands by himself.

Though he occasionally got some help from friends and relatives, for the most part Ajisaiyama was something Minamisawa tended to by himself, making him a community celebrity. A few years ago, he was approached by members of Do-mo, a local entrepreneurial organization that was hoping to produce a hydrangea tea and hoped Minamisawa could help them with sourcing some of the ingredients. “Sure, I can let you use some of the hydrangeas,” Minamisawa told them. “But I’m getting older, and I don’t have that many years left, and once I’m gone, there’s no one to take care of the flowers.”

Seeing a way they could both help each other, Do-mo then agreed to take over as the hydrangeas’ caretakers, with Minamisawa imparting his knowledge about how to differentiate the different varieties of hydrangeas that grow on the mountain, and when and how to prune and otherwise care for each of them.

▼ Minamisawa with members of Do-mo

Sadly, Minamisawa passed away in July of 2023, shortly after the end of that year’s hydrangea season, at the age of 93. The hydrangeas, now some 15,000 in number, still bloom every June, and this year’s petals are about to unfold.

This year’s hydrangea season peak is expected to be from June 7 to July 6, during which the Minamisawa Ajisaiyama will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no admission charged. The hydrangea mountain is 40-minutes on foot from Musashi-Itsukaichi Station on the Itsukaichi Line, but between June 13 and 30 there’s also a shuttle bus that runs from the station to the mountain for 300 yen (US$2.10) roughly twice and hour between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., with the full timetable available on the official website here.

Location information
Minamisawa Ajisaiyama / 南沢あじさい山
Address: Tokyo-to, Akiruno-shi, Fukasawa 368-362
東京都あきる野市深沢368−362
Website

Source: PR Times, Minamisawa Ajisaiyama
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times (1, 2, 3)
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