Kitagawa Village Monet's Garden Marmottan Recreated Giverny

How it compares to Giverny and local attractions

Kitagawa Village Monet’s Garden Marmottan (北川村モネの庭マルモッタン) is a 2-hectare garden in Noyu, Kitagawa Village, Aki District, Kōchi Prefecture that reproduces the Water Lilies motif Claude Monet painted at Giverny. It is the only garden in the world outside Giverny that the Claude Monet Foundation, “Académie des Beaux-Arts,” has officially permitted to carry the name “Monet.” Opening on 19 April 2000, the garden drew large local attention: by the end of December 2000 it had recorded 192,240 visitors, exceeding Ryugado Cave (185,309) and Kōchi Castle Kaitokukan (179,598) in the prefectural survey and becoming the most-visited tourism site in Kōchi Prefecture for 2000.

Rather than presenting a copy of Giverny, the site adapts Monet’s motifs to Kitagawa’s landscape and climate. That local adaptation—combined with the formal authorization to use Monet’s name—defines what the site offers in comparison to the original gardens and to other attractions in Kōchi.

Why the village built a Monet garden

The Monet garden project grew out of a changed local development plan in the 1990s. In the 1990s Kitagawa Village had promoted yuzu as a local specialty and sought to attract a yuzu winery, but the bubble-era economic fallout forced a major scaling-back of the winery plan by 1996. With land set aside for the winery now vacant, the village project team proposed a regional tourism and cultural hub built around a flower garden that would reproduce Monet’s Giverny landscape using Kitagawa’s natural features.

Negotiations began in 1996 when village staff were sent to France. The Claude Monet Foundation expressed cooperation in 1998, and during the planning phase the project obtained permission to use the park name from the Marmottan museum director in October 1999. Preparations—training visits to France, advice from the French Monet garden’s staff and coordination of the site plan—led to the garden’s opening on 19 April 2000.

Design and horticulture: how the water gardens are managed

The garden’s water-lily ponds are managed with techniques drawn from Giverny practice and adapted to local conditions. Water lilies are planted in pots on the pond bottom so that leaves retain circular and oval shapes and distribute evenly across the surface. Staff remove fallen leaves from the water once a week and drain each pond once a year to exchange and reset water-lily clumps.

Planting around the ponds is arranged to account for seasonal and time-of-day light so that the vegetation and sky reflect on the water in planned ways. The site cultivates about 1,000 kinds of flowers and roughly 55,000 plants that are grown and rotated across the gardens.

The garden’s vegetation management has been recognized internationally: the manager responsible for the plantings, Kawakami, received the French government’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Chevalier) in 2015.

Gardens, facilities and what you can see on site

• Bordighera Garden: themed on Monet’s painting “Bordighera,” inspired by the Mediterranean coast and adapted here to meet Kōchi’s sea and mountain surroundings.
• Flower Garden: a seasonal bedscape where flowers change across the year, providing different color combinations in each season.
• Water Garden: the dedicated water-lily garden that includes varieties Monet painted and also features blue water lilies.
• Flower House: the on-site nursery where much of the garden’s planting stock is propagated; flower seedlings are also sold there.
• Floral Hall: a multi-purpose hall and exhibition space opened in 2011 that doubles as a gallery area.
• Gallery & Shop: a gallery styled on an artist’s atelier that displays reproductions; the shop sells Monet-branded goods and local products.

The site has hosted special exhibitions and collaborations. A “Light Garden” area opened on 1 March 2008. A friends association for the garden formed on 18 June 2003. The on-site restaurant “Café Monet’s House” was destroyed by fire on 19 May 2016 and subsequently reopened after renewal in April 2017.

Visitor milestones and recent developments

Key public milestones trace the garden’s development and recognition: - 19 April 2000: official opening. - By 31 December 2000: 192,240 visitors recorded, making it the most-visited spot in Kōchi Prefecture that year. - April 2001 (first anniversary): visitor numbers reached 220,000. - 30 August 2008: cumulative visits reached 1,000,000 since opening. - 11 April 2010: a 10th-anniversary ceremony was held with the French ambassador to Japan and the director of the Monet garden in attendance. - 2011: Floral Hall opened. - 2015: a commemorative photo book published for the 15th anniversary. - 19 May 2016: restaurant “Café Monet’s House” was destroyed by fire; April 2017: the restaurant reopened after renewal. - 14 June 2018: selected as entry number 23 in the “Shikoku 88 Views.” - 2019: staff exchanges with Giverny (training and inspections) and a November 2019 news report noted eight endangered species occurring naturally in the garden’s third pond. - April–May 2020: temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. - 19 April 2021: 20th anniversary; the Bordighera Garden was reopened after renewal. - October 2023: garden staff and former Giverny garden staff visited and supervised; on 27 October 2023 cumulative visits surpassed 2,000,000.

These milestones show both steady development of the gardens themselves and the site’s role as a cultural project for the village.

Access

The garden is served by public transport and by car. From the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen–Nahari Line, alight at Nahari Station and take the Kitagawa Village bus to the “Monet’s Garden” stop—the stop is immediately adjacent to the garden. From Nahari Station the garden is also reachable by car in about 10 minutes. By road, the site is roughly 60 minutes by car from Kōchi Ryōma Airport and about 70 minutes by car from the Kōchi Expressway Nankoku Interchange. The garden provides parking for approximately 100 vehicles, including space for about six large buses.

FAQ

Where is Kitagawa Village Monet's Garden Marmottan located?

In Noyu, Kitagawa Village, Aki District, Kōchi Prefecture.

When did the garden open?

The garden opened on 19 April 2000.

What makes its name unique?

It is the only garden outside Giverny that the Claude Monet Foundation "Académie des Beaux-Arts" has officially permitted to use the name "Monet."

How do I reach it by train and bus?

Take the Tosa Kuroshio Railway Gomen–Nahari Line to Nahari Station and use the Kitagawa Village bus to the "Monet's Garden" stop.