Remembering Shanghai’s Rokusan Gardens

I came across a couple of references recently to the Rokusan Gardens in Shanghai, a park who’s existence I was not previously aware of. The Rokusan Gardens were laid out in 1896 at the north end of North Szechuan Road (Sichuan Road North nowadays) which was itself laid out and planned in the late 1860s. The North Szechuan Road was a popular gathering place for the International Settlement’s Japanese community, it was home to the small Uchiyama Shoten bookshop owned by the Japanese intellectual Kanza Uchiyama, which was where Lu Xun often bought books. Also the nearby Gongfei Coffee Shop on the second floor of a North Szechuan Road building was a salon where Chinese and Japanese writers and intellectuals met to discuss literature and the arts before the second world war. I am assuming the Gardens were at the northern end of the road and probably just outside the official Settlement borders in Chapei (Zhabei). The Gardens were small as they don’t appear on many maps. The Gardens apparently included a small Japanese Shinto shrine surrounded by a small artificial pond and flowering shrubs. There was also a small Japanese-style tea house within the grounds.

the Gardens were also adjacent to a Japanese restaurant, also called Rokusan,which was the most popular Japanese restaurant with westerners in Shanghai (and opened in 1912 I think) until it was destroyed in the Shanghai War of 1932 and never rebuilt. In 1932 the Gardens were the scene of fierce fighting when Chinese shock troops arrived from Canton (Guangzhou) pinned down elements of the second and fifth battalions of the Japanese Marines in the Gardens and a significant fire fight occurred – enough to be reported in American newspapers. I believe the Rokusan Restaurant closed after 1932 though the building remained and is the one on North Sichuan Road below – though far from sure I’ve got this right!!

The Rokusan Gardens shortly before it was devastated in the Shanghai War of 1932

The former Rokusan Restaurant buidling – the ugly modern block to the left is on the site of the former Rokusan Gardens (I think…)