Seeing iris festival at Shohinken Garden, Yatsushiro, Kumamoto

On Monday, we had decided to take a drive to see iris in bloom at Shohinken (松浜軒) Garden, Yatsushiro, Kumamoto. The garden's Japanese water iris (iris ensata) are starting to bloom in late May. The best time to see the flowers is around the beginning of June. 

Before coming here, we stopped at two sightseeing places on the way, Miike Port in Omuta and Rengein Tanjo-ji Okunoin in Tamana. What did I do there? I'll tell you about these places later.

The pond's irises are approaching full bloom, with over 80% of the flowers already open. We enjoyed for an iris blossom viewing party.

Iris blossoms in bloom in the garden.

The iris garden and the Hosokawa family's house

 A close up of some blossoms.