Ashigara Manyo Park

This park is located on the border between Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures within the Ashigara Pass. Hakone is to the south. The park looks out over the plains of Ashigara and Sagami Bay to the east. During the Nara and Heian Periods, the Ashigara Pass connected eastern and western Japan as a way of passage. It is referred to many times in the Manyoushuu, the oldest anthology of poems in Japan. Within the park, many of the plant varieties referred to in those poems are grown.