時がほどける日本: 栗林公園、将軍、抹茶、そして永遠の俳句 – Where Time Slips in Japan: Ritsurin Garden, Shoguns, Matcha & a Haiku of the Eternal

Ritsurin Garden is not a place you simply visit: it is a moment where time forgets its pace. Tucked quietly in Takamatsu, this Edo-period garden carries the stillness of shoguns, the discipline of shaped pines, and the unbroken ritual of matcha that has tasted the same for centuries. A single step beyond its gate feels like a time slip: the modern world softens, silence deepens, and history becomes something you feel rather than observe. This haiku journey is an invitation for those in Japan and beyond to encounter a living cultural memory, where patience is preserved, beauty is earned slowly, and a part of the heart may remain long after the body leaves.

Haiku sequence

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A leisure day, yet my heart
leaves first, tugged by something old
and quietly calling.

Osaka keeps her neon,
Tokyo sharp with her glow,
I choose the softer road.

Bridges stitch the inland sea;
with each span, the present loosens,
thoughts falling behind..

Shikoku awaits, with serenity,
a Japan before applause,
away from the pomp and shine.

Wind through cedar boughs
steps lightly, as if afraid
to wake ancient names.

One gate, one footstep—
the century tilts sideways,
time forgets its pace.

Pines rise under care,
ropes visible, honest, kind—
nature guided, not owned.

Koi cross mirrored mere,
writing circles that erase
the need for hurry.

Paths curve, withholding
all at once—beauty revealed
only to the still.

Matcha, deep and green—
sharpness, older than the trees
settles on the tongue.

Hands turn the bowl slow;
no movement without meaning,
centuries bow with the steam.

What endures lives here—
not in walls, but in the pause
between two breaths.

I stand, slightly lost,
unsure which century claims
the weight of my body.

When I finally leave,
the world resumes its noise—
yet something still walks with me.

One day, I return—
the cobbled path will know my footsteps,
as if I never left.

Part of my heart stays,
kneeling where matcha turns green—
cups shared with Shoguns.

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ありがとうございます / Arigatou Gozaimasu

© Abirbhav Mukherjee. All the pictures / videos posted in this article are my own unless otherwise mentioned.