Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Kitakyushu, Japan ( 5 hours from Tokyo, if you take the Nozomi high speed train) is where you will find this pastel-colored fairytale tunnel.The garden's most prominent features are two, roughly 100 meter long tunnels made of wisteria trees of differing varieties and colors, ranging from white to dark purple. Furthermore, there is a collection of large wisteria trees that together form an enormous roof of drooping flowers.
The history of Kawachi Wisteria began with a boy's dream that the founder, Masao Higuchi, was impressed by the book he read when he was in elementary school and wanted to leave proof that he lived in this world.
Masao was a man who devoted himself to his work during and after the war, protecting his family, but when his life was settled down, it was a dream he had when he was a boy. When he decided and confessed that he wanted to plant a beautiful wisteria in this mountain of miscellaneous trees and create a wisteria garden that everyone could come to see, his family agreed, and in 1968 (Showa 43), he began cultivating with his eldest son. Masao's dream of leaving a living proof became a family dream from this time.
While the engine sound of the bulldozer echoes in the quiet mountains, the work is difficult due to the hard ground and rocky land. It was a daunting task to collect the stones that came out and carry them out by unicycle. Even so, a few years later, the work to make the slope of the mountain into a pedestal was completed, and the Ofuji shelf and the wisteria tunnel of about 1000 tsubo were completed.
The first tree to be planted at "Kawachi Wisteria Garden" was a wisteria that was transplanted from Kawachi Village, which had sunk to the bottom of the lake when the Kawachi Reservoir was constructed and has been carefully cultivated so far.
It has been 50 years since the land was cleared. The tree that started at "Kawachi Wisteria Garden" has grown to Ofuji, which is over 120 years old, and every year, beautiful flower clusters are fluttering and the visitors are pleased.
From late April to mid-May, 22 kinds of wisteria flowers are in full bloom, an absolute overwhelming view and smell!