In 1654,
Tokugawa Tsunashige, the third son of
Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu and
daimyō of
Kōfu Domain, received permission to reclaim land from
Edo Bay, upon which he built a villa and garden. The property was inherited by his son,
Tokugawa Ienobu, who later became 6th Tokugawa shōgun. Succeeding generations of shōgun used the location as a secondary residence, and from the time of
Tokugawa Ienari through
Tokugawa Ieyoshi, it was a place where the shōgun could indulge in
falconry. The main palace at Hama was destroyed by fire in 1724, and has not been rebuilt since. In 1729, an elephant which had been received by the shōgun as a present from
Vietnam was kept on the grounds for 12 years. During the
Bakumatsu period, the site was turned over to the Tokugawa Navy as a training ground. In 1867, the shogunate erected a western-style stone building as a place for foreign diplomats to stay when visiting Edo. After the
Meiji Restoration, the site was proclaimed the by
Emperor Meiji, and continued to be used as a
state guest house until the construction of the
Rokumeikan. In 1879, Emperor Meiji received Crown Prince
Frederick William of Germany at the Hama-rikyū. Later that year, former United States president
Ulysses S. Grant stayed for a month at the Hama-rikyū during his extended visit to Japan as part of his
world tour. The state guest house was demolished in 1889. The gardens burned during the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake and again in March 1945 during the
Tokyo air raid. In November 1945, the Hama-rikyū was transferred from the
Imperial Household Agency to
Tokyo Metropolis and was opened as a public garden in April 1946. In 1952, it was designated as a
Special National Historic Site and also as a
Special National Place of Scenic Beauty. Various teahouses have been reconstructed in the 2010s. ==Access==