In a post originally written on Cheapism and then shared to AOL, Portland Japanese Garden was named as the most romantic place in Oregon. Journalist Saundra Latham writes, “it’s perfect for a romantic, contemplative stroll any time of year.” While winter weather has disrupted Valentine’s Day plans this week, there’s no better place to make up for it than a trip to the Garden.

Read the full article to see the wonderful and romantic company our organization keeps.

The post From AOL: Portland Japanese Garden is the Most Romantic Place in Oregon appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

Portland Japanese Garden was featured in a recent New York Times article that recommended different cities for families to head to for spring break. In journalist Emily Goligoski’s article, her section on Portland notes that the Garden has “expansive city views and programming for families” and suggested people check out the Umami Café. Make sure you check out all the other incredible Portland attractions as well as accommodations and restaurants Goligoski highlighted in her article by clicking the button below.

The post From the New York Times: Portland Japanese Garden Among Recommended Family Outings for Spring Break appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

Homes & Gardens, a more than 100-year-old publication based out of the United Kingdom that covers interior design and landscape architecture, recently spoke with experts on the best plants to purchase when creating a Japanese garden. Hugo Torii, Garden Curator of Portland Japanese Garden, was included among a select group of experts by journalist Jacky Parker. “Typically, every Japanese garden has stones, plants, and water,” Torii shared. “These are common elements found in Japanese gardens, but I would not go far as to say they are required.” To read the full article, click the link below.

The post From Homes & Gardens: Garden Curator Hugo Torii Among Experts Offering Plant Recommendations for Japanese Gardens appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

The following article was originally published in Pacific Horticulture, an education focused non-profit and publication that is “the leading voice of horticulture in our Pacific region for today and future generations, we spread ideas that grow our gardens and landscapes to achieve climate resilience, steward biodiversity, and connect people with nature.” To read the article on their website, click here.

By Will Lerner, Communications Manager for Portland Japanese Garden & Japan Institute

What makes a Japanese garden a Japanese garden? It’s a simple question that is difficult to answer—there is a breadth and depth in this pursuit that the term “Japanese garden” simply fails to capture. It can mean the ascetic beauty of a karesansui (such as the Sand and Stone Garden) or the refined elegance of a chisen kaiyu shiki teien (such as the Strolling Pond Garden). It can mean the gardens that Tachibana no Toshitsuna (1028–1094) described in the world’s oldest extant gardening text, Sakuteiki, or the more natural spaces popularized after World War II by Kenzo Ogata (1912–1988) and his sensei, Juki Iida (1890–1977).

Related: The Zoki no Niwa of Portland Japanese Garden: A Uniquely Natural Feeling

Beyond the aesthetic trappings, a Japanese garden might mean a place for idly strolling while enjoying breezy conversation or a place of solemnity and repose. Just as referring to Japan itself as “homogenous” vanishes the nuances and differences of its varying regions, “Japanese garden” is a malleable term with a wide scope. And yet, Japanese gardens are noticeably different compared to the horticultural works of other cultures. This suggests we can explain what a Japanese garden is, or at least use a few thousand words to get closer to its meaning.

Portland Japanese Garden is uniquely suited to illustrate the beauty of Japanese gardens and unpack their distinction because of how the attraction was crafted by its original designer, Professor Takuma Tono of Tokyo Agricultural University (1891–1987). Retained in the early 1960s by the garden’s nonprofit organization, Tono made the revolutionary choice to incorporate four (later, five) different examples of Japanese landscape architecture representative of different eras in his native nation’s history.

“There are different Japanese gardens in [Portland Japanese Garden] and not even in Japan would you be able to see so many different types of Japanese gardens in one go,” shared Her Imperial Highness, Princess Tsuguko of Takamado at a 2023 gala in Tokyo celebrating the organization’s 60th anniversary. “It is a museum of gardens. For people who want to study Japanese gardens, that’s the place to go. For people who want to feel those Japanese gardens, that’s the place to go.”

Maintaining this “museum of gardens” has been a lineage of 10 Japan-born gardening experts, beginning with Kinya Hira in 1964 and continuing to its current Garden Curator, Hugo Torii, who took on the mantle in 2021. In 2010, during Sadafumi Uchiyama’s tenure as Garden Curator from 2008 to 2021, Portland Japanese Garden welcomed back all eight of his predecessors for a reunion. These individuals have lent their talents and training beyond just this corner of the Pacific Northwest—they’ve built, redesigned, maintained, and consulted on Japanese gardens throughout the world, earning a dizzying number of awards and honors along the way. Board of Trustees President Ed McVicker, who served from 2009 to 2010, used the opportunity of the reunion to ask each of the nine curators the same question: What makes a Japanese garden a Japanese garden?

A Reflection of the Japanese Mind

A Japanese garden is not a garden that just happens to be in Japan—the Barakura English Garden in Nagano illustrates this point with its name alone.  “A Japanese garden … is a combination of the form and the Japanese peoples’ spirit reflected in it,” shared Takao Donuma, Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1985 to 1987. “Therefore, when asked what a Japanese garden is, I think that it is a garden with a certain form that incorporates the Japanese mind of tradition, culture, and method.”

As Donuma noted to McVicker, the Japanese perspective is crucial. Clarifying that perspective is beyond the scope of this article and exceedingly difficult to do so in English. One of the easiest ways to begin to understand is by looking at how the people of Japan have historically built gardens versus those in the West, which often are alight with energetic flowers.

“Japanese gardens do not use a lot of colors and flowers,” noted Michio Wakui, Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1974 to 1976. “For example, when we use camellias, we don’t use many but strategically place it in one spot. English gardens use a lot of colors and have fun with colors. On the other hand, Japanese gardens try to keep it as simple as possible. I don’t think that in Japanese gardens, they are consciously arranging the different tones of foliage like in an English garden. It’s more about shape, using stones, and the balance between stones and trees.”

Japanese gardens are not so drastically different from Western cultural outputs that they don’t share certain similarities. Italian Renaissance gardens, for instance, also favor foliage over a tableau of many different flowers. It is rather the accumulation of factors that drive the uniqueness of Japan’s landscape architecture.

While it’s easier to make the distinction between East and West, there are also differences within Asia that may go unappreciated. Chinese gardens are gorgeous spaces that cannot be simply lumped together with Japanese gardens even though the continent-bound country greatly influenced the archipelago nation.

“Let’s use food as an analogy,” shared Sadafumi Uchiyama, now Curator Emeritus of Portland Japanese Garden. “The ingredients may be similar, but the seasoning is different—a reflection of the tastes of each culture. Take the Chinese scholar garden. They bring the garden inside into a courtyard and it’s intricate. The Japanese tend to place the building in the garden in a way that it blends into the landscape.”

Portland Japanese Garden’s neighbor and friend, Lan Su Chinese Garden, illustrates this point well. There, stunning architecture surrounds an oasis of natural beauty. In the Japanese garden, the pavilion and tea house are inconspicuous by comparison.

A person does not need to be Japanese to build a Japanese garden. Uchiyama is perhaps the most passionate advocate that place of origin is not the ultimate horticultural determinant. In 2016, he led the establishment of the International Japanese Garden Training Center, a programmatic arm of Japan Institute and Portland Japanese Garden that combines traditional and time-honored methods with Western approaches to instruction like lectures and homework assignments.

“The Japanese are one of the few cultures that have been continuously building gardens in human history so we are more attuned to the work,” Uchiyama shared. “But it’s the process that matters, not the cultural background. There’s more than one right way to do it—it is just essential to learn the history of these gardens, their importance, and their meaning. Understanding that, can anyone build a Japanese garden? Yes, absolutely.”

Some Key Aesthetic Choices

Sticking with what can be seen, Japanese gardens include several human-made elements, typically in subdued and earthen colors, such as stone lanterns, wooden bridges, gates, buildings with clay roof tiles, water basins carved from rock, benches, and arbors. Even in Portland Japanese Garden’s Natural Garden, where the land is paradoxically maintained so it can look as though it has been untouched, there are lanterns and a machiai (sheltered waiting area). Masayuki Mizuno, who was Garden Director for the organization from 1977 to 1980, said these elements are necessary. “A Japanese garden needs a physical component such as a gate or a pavilion,” he told McVicker.  “A garden is not a park. It belongs to these structures.”

The rustic simplicity of materials lacks audacity. Granite and wood suggest humility absent from the grandeur of ornate fountains or gods represented in marble. “One of the most important components in a [Japanese] garden is its elegance,” shared Kinya Hira, the first Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1964 to 1969. “That is why the gardens in Kyoto and Nara, [ones] that have existed for thousands of years, are still remaining.”

Because elements like stone lanterns and raked white gravel are so deeply associated with Japanese gardens, even the most well-meaning gardener may err in their use of them and end up with an inelegant space that demonstrates Western misunderstanding rather than reflect the aesthetics of Japan.

“There’s a long list,” Uchiyama said with a smile when asked what wayward choices he’s seen. “For instance, you’ll see white gravel everywhere. People will neglect that it should only be used with moderation. Gravel doesn’t suddenly make a garden a Japanese garden. Sometimes you will see stones that aren’t carefully placed. There are smaller details as well. Japanese gardens have buildings and while there may be a variety of them, they all have roofs within a given pitch range that you shouldn’t deviate from—a range that has existed for over 700 years. If those guidelines have been followed for that long, there must be a good reason.”

Beyond the interplay of nature and subtle adornments, a Japanese garden doesn’t simply provide something to look at—instead, the gardeners consider how you will look at something.

“The concept of walking through a garden and enjoying different perspectives of the same space, I think, is only seen in a Japanese garden,” Wakui told McVicker. Though never starkly obvious, when one walks the historic garden spaces of Portland Japanese Garden, they rarely step foot on a pathway that has a clear end point. Walks here take people in loops and zigzags and with every few feet a new and intentional perspective is presented. Even in the ecstatic frenzy of Portland’s famous International Rose Test Garden, there is an order to things, with paths forming a grid.

Japanese gardens, meanwhile, keep you in anticipation of what’s around the bend. “Just like a play where you cry and laugh, or like how music has soft and loud sections, a [Japanese] garden needs open spaces and hiding places,” remarked Kichiro Sano, Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1982 to 1984. Sano here is referencing miegakure, or “hide and reveal,” an important Japanese garden design concept in which all elements of the landscape will not be viewable from one fixed location. Instead, one must move around.

“Japanese gardens are surrounded and never really have an open space,” shared Toru Tanaka, the eighth Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1988 to 1991. “[Being surrounded] is the most important element and without it, it will not be a [Japanese] garden … when people are put in a place that is surrounded, they feel protected.”

Capturing the Quintessence of Nature

“Stones and white sand may be the easiest way to identify a Japanese garden, but Japanese gardens were originally meant to replicate the natural landscape,” explained Hachiro Sakakibara, Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1972 to 1974, speaking with Ed McVicker. This is another essential consideration when it comes to these spaces: distilling nature.

“There are components that represent nature like mountains, rivers, valleys, and rivers flowing into the ocean,” shared Masayuki Mizuno, Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1977 to 1980. “So we need waterfalls, the sound of water, the movement of the water, the flow of the water that eventually ends in a pond. If the configuration of the pond and the plants surrounding it are well selected, the pond will feel like a lake or an ocean to the visitor.”

Another element of distilling nature includes making a setting feel as aged as a natural space can. “In Japan it is important to create a garden that feels like it has been there for 100 or even 200 years,” Sano added. “We don’t want anything that looks newly made … Also, it is often said that the teacher of a Japanese garden is nature. Therefore, it all depends on what we conceive of as nature. Our job is to understand what nature is and express that by bringing in trees and planting them in a certain way. In order to do that, you need the training and you need to learn how to bring out the beauty of the trees.”

Uchiyama similarly gravitates toward a variation on this theme: he is not necessarily trying to copy nature verbatim; he’s trying to copy the experience of nature. This means it’s not necessarily about placing stones in such a way that resembles a mountainous area, it’s about placing them to make the guest feel the same way that they do when they’re in a mountainous area.

“A Japanese garden is a beautiful and emotional manifestation of the true land we need. The sound of water, the whispering of tree branches in wind,” he shared. “We want the experience of being in the wild; we choose physical objects and materials that help provide it. The shape and form of the materials are, in some ways, irrelevant.”

Hoichi Kurisu, the second Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden from 1968 to 1973, has similar thoughts on the paradoxical quest of creating a scene that is simultaneously manmade and unspoiled nature.

“A Japanese garden incorporates all the techniques, balance and harmony learned from nature throughout the centuries, and does not interfere with nature,” Kurisu told McVicker. “… We bring out the essence of nature and combine it with balance and harmony in a space where people go and see a garden. But if the balance is broken, it is no longer a Japanese garden. That is the same with harmony. If the harmony is broken, it is no longer a Japanese garden.”

A Depository of Emotions

You can go to the Japanese garden to celebrate an achievement with your family. You can go to the Japanese garden to mourn a loss alone. A Japanese garden is a place that will always meet the needs you have in any given day, a “depository of emotions,” as Uchiyama put it. “French and English gardens may provide contemplative spaces, but the key is that Japanese gardeners and designers having knowingly built gardens over the course of history to provide space for people’s thoughts and feelings. Providing space for emotions drives the design.”

It is in this that we see how a “Japanese garden” functions as “healing garden.” To Kurisu, the terms are essentially interchangeable. “I think that a Japanese garden uses a technique that creates that harmony between the space and balance,” he shared. “I feel that each individual thing in a Japanese garden is part of this harmony.”

How do these places achieve the effect of healing? Some of it boils down to the basic needs of humans to be in nature. There is growing evidence that time in the wild is preventive care for both body and mind. Whether it is the relaxing influence of colors or the immune-system-boosting phytoncides that plants gift us, there is a correspondence between Mother Earth and our fibers and sinew. It is true that these effects can happen in any number of natural spaces belonging to any people. Perhaps what differentiates the Japanese garden is that this connection between healing and time spent outdoors is actively considered by its creator and its stewards—and always has been. Guests should be able to perceive the results.

Related: Forest Bathing to Better our Health

“By the time the visitors leave the garden, they should feel reenergized because the experience of walking through the garden has cleared their minds,” added Mizuno. “If the majority of the visitors did not feel that way, it is not a Japanese garden. There must be something wrong with the composition. It is easy to just put the physical elements in a garden, but you need the skills and eye for the configuration of the pond, size of streams, and the overall balance of all the elements.”

1,000 Years and Counting

It has often been quipped that it takes 200 years to truly master the craft of Japanese gardening and even that may not be enough. After all, Japanese gardens are never complete—they live, they grow, they transform.

“Japanese gardens have evolved over the course of 1,000 years, with each iteration reflecting the needs of a given time,” concluded Hugo Torii, Garden Curator of Portland Japanese Garden since 2021. “This evolution has created a rich diversity of garden styles, all of which offer something unique to be appreciated. However, the quintessential factor that elevates landscapes such as Portland Japanese Garden is that they allow the visitor to experience Japanese culture and its emphasis on respecting nature and being in harmony with it. Whether a space is decorative like a raked gravel garden or more rustic like a tea garden, they provide a place to confirm our connection and find our distance with nature and in this, the opportunity to heal.”

The post The Distinction of Japanese Gardens as Told by the Experts Who Create and Maintain Them appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

On Sunday, January 12, Portland Japanese Garden its multi-day celebration of O-Shogatsu, Japanese New Year, with the return of its beloved festival celebration. Journalist Chiara Profenna and photojournalist Mark Graves of The Oregonian attended the event. Profenna spoke with a Garden guest, Briawna Maruyama, who shared, “It feels very special…Since I don’t have any information through my family, this feels like the most refreshing and truthful way to get to know (Japanese culture).” To read the entire article, click the link below.

The post From The Oregonian: Portland Japanese Garden kicks off the Year of the Snake with O-Shogatsu Festival appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

2024 was a year remarked by several stories from the media that demonstrated the incredible landscape, unforgettable programming, and outstanding people that bring Portland Japanese Garden to life. To close out the year, we have selected our best coverage of 2024 below. We also have two more end-of-year reviews: a look back at the many events that happened here and a collection of original writing.

National & International Outlets

AARP Magazine named the Garden as being one the best places to see cherry blossoms in spring.

Bloomberg Connects highlighted us among the world-class gardens one can explore through their digital platform.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on the appointment of Lisa Christy to the role of Executive Director of Portland Japanese Garden.

Country Living wrote that alongside the waterfront, Portland Japanese Garden makes its host city one of the top places in the country to see cherry blossoms.

Courier Japan, a Japanese-language site, shared an article previously written for Atlas Obscura about Gena Renaud, one of the Garden’s culinary partners who supplies treats for the Umami Café.

Cultural News, a Los Angeles-based organization that caters to the Japanese and Japanese American communities, covered our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.

Fodor’s Travel suggested a visit to Portland in autumn is worthwhile to see the Garden when it’s experiencing its peak fall colors.

Group Travel Leader recommended the Garden as a place to visit to see spring blooms.

House Beautiful spoke with our very own Garden Curator, Hugo Torii, about zen gardens and things to consider when building one’s own.

Later in the year, House Beautiful spoke with Lead Gardener Evan Cordes about caring for bonsai.

Islands, a longtime destination magazine, shared what they found to be the 14 most popular botanical gardens according to Reddit. Though we’re not a botanical garden, we appreciate the praise nonetheless.

The Japan Times, Japan’s oldest and largest English newspaper, interviewed Aki Nakanishi, Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education in a piece in which he discussed how Japanese gardens are land art that simultaneously supports ecological health.

Japanese Garden TV, a highly popular YouTube channel based out of Japan, paid a special visit to the Garden in winter.

Matador highlighted us as being among the places in the U.S. one should go see cherry blossoms.

PetaPixel, one of the premier YouTube channels, podcasts, and websites about photography, visited the Garden while covering a new camera.

Sports Illustrated includes travel among the pursuits they cover and chose as a reason to visit Portland, calling us scenic and tranquil.

The Travel noted that we’re among the 7 places in the U.S. that looks “airlifted” over from Japan

The Dutch outlet Verkeersbureaus featured a Portland resident from the Netherlands who named as one of their favorite places in the city.

Local & Regional Outlets

KATU-TV, Portland’s ABC Affiliate:

• Covered O-Shogatsu (Japanese New Year), one of the Garden’s beloved annual cultural festivals.
• Alerted their audience that the Garden was seeing the peak bloom of cherry blossoms.
• Gave a fullhearted endorsement of visiting our landscape in fall.

KGW-TV, Portland’s NBC Affiliate:

• Recommended the Garden as a place to see cherry blossoms in spring.
• Chatted with Carolyn Supinka, Assistant Director of Exhibitions, about our art exhibition, Vision of Place.
• Visited our art installation, Spread Peace and spoke with Paula Esguerra, Director of Japan Institute’s International Exchange Forum (2022-24)

KOIN-TV, Portland’s CBS Affiliate:

• Built anticipation for the Garden’s stunning annual display of cherry blossoms.
• Spoke with Mayuko Sasanuma, Director of Cultural Programming about our celebration of Hina Matsuri, Doll’s Day.
• Chatted with Megumi Kato, Director of Marketing, and Carolyn Supinka, Assistant Director of Exhibitions, about our art exhibition Vision of Place and the anticipated cherry blossoms of spring.
• Alerted their audience that the Garden had reached peak bloom of its cherry blossoms.
• Promoted our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.

KPTV, Portland’s FOX Affiliate:

• Spoke with Paula Esguerra, Director of Japan Institute’s International Exchange Forum (2022-24) about our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.
• Visited the Garden during our celebration of Tanabata, the Star Festival.
• Made sure to let their audience know when we reached peak fall colors.

Oregon ArtsWatch:

• Came by to cover our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.
• Chatted with artist Naoko Fukumaru for her exhibition, Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru.

The Oregonian:

• Listed Hina Matsuri as a recommended event back in March.
• Recommended to their readers they visit our spring art exhibition, Vision of Place.
• Suggested the Garden as a place to see cherry blossoms in spring, and then did so once again.
• Highlighted how we’re considered one of the most peaceful places in Portland.
• Recommended that folks check out our collaborative horticultural exhibition with the Bonsai Society of Portland.
• Covered our ranking as one of the top U.S. urban gardens.
• Shared the news when Tripadvisor gave the Garden a Traveler’s Choice Award.
• Pointed their readers to Bon-Odori (Summer Festival) as something worth experiencing.
• Offered our horticultural exhibition featuring Ikebana International as a recommended event.
• Highlighted the Garden as a place to see fall colors in a region with no shortage of options.
• Came through to take pictures of our final days of peak fall.

Willamette Week:

• Named O-Shogatsu as one of their recommended events and then later came to the Garden to take pictures of the day.
• Covered the appointment of Lisa Christy to the role of Executive Director of Portland Japanese Garden.
• Alerted their readers that the Garden was seeing the peak bloom of its cherry blossoms.

Portland Tribune:

• Covered the appointment of Lisa Christy to the role of Executive Director of Portland Japanese Garden.
• Featured our exhibition, Vision of Place.
• Recommended checking out our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.
• Highlighted Bon-Odori as an event worth checking out.
• Reported that we had reached peak fall colors this past autumn.

More Local & Regional Media:

Brooklyn Paper covered Japan Institute’s donation of a handcrafted replica of our beloved Peace Lantern to Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Capital Press, a Salem-based newspaper, interview Garden Curator Hugo Torii about the deep significance of the Garden and its flora.

The Columbian, a newspaper based out of Southwest Washington, recommended visiting our art installation, Spread Peace: Wish Tree by Yoko Ono.

Oregon Pero en Español, a website that caters to Spanish-speaking Oregonians, featured the Garden.

Oregon Public Broadcasting sat down with exhibiting artist Naoko Fukumaru to discuss her artwork and her Garden exhibition, Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru.

The Pacific Sentinel, a publication produced by the students of Portland State University, sat down for a lengthy conversation with Lisa Christy, Executive Director of the Garden.

Preview highlighted Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru as well.

Ranch and Coast, a magazine based in San Diego, featured the Garden in their travel piece on Portland.

Seattleite listed Portland Japanese Garden as one of the things folks taking a road trip south from Seattle should do.

Via, a publication produced by AAA, wrote that the Garden is among the reason why they feel Portland is among the cultured cities of the Pacific Northwest.

The post 2024 Media Coverage of Portland Japanese Garden appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.

Issue 11 of The Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA), published in November 2024, features an article written by Will Lerner, Communications Manager for Portland Japanese Garden and Japan Institute. In it, Lerner shares insights from the organization’s Garden Directors and Curators, all Japanese-born niwashi (garden masters). They discuss the Natural Garden, one of the organization’s five historic garden spaces, and an example of the zoki no niwa style. To purchase a copy of this scholarly journal, visit NAJGA’s website.

By Will Lerner

In the first part of the 20^th century, Hungarian scientist-turned-philosopher Michael Polyani delivered a series of lectures on something named the “tacit dimension.” This idea he put simply forth: “we can know more than we can tell”.¹ What he meant is that there is a reservoir within us of knowledge that lays beyond our articulation. It is an intuitive concept.      We can so easily picture a loved one with just a mention of their name. However, most of us would likely be unable to describe this same person in a way where someone else would. This suggests there is a “knowing” within us we often cannot express. Perhaps that’s why some art resonates with us—it feels as though its creator(s) have somehow ferried their passions to us so evocatively that we can call them our own. The Natural Garden in Portland Japanese Garden does just that. It is highly rustic and yet impeccably designed, paradoxically entirely natural and entirely artificial. It is made even more special by the fact that it is an art fostered over generations by multiple people; an intuition first shared, made recognizable, and then carried forward.

The Natural Garden is the fifth historic space in Portland Japanese Garden and was built in the 1970s after an initial moss garden in its space had failed to thrive in the way its builders intended. The other four spaces built in the 1960s, the Tea Garden, Flat Garden, Sand and Stone Garden, and Strolling Pond Garden, derive their aesthetics from eras that pre-date the Meiji Period (1868-1912). The Natural Garden is relatively recent, a style that has its roots in a reaction to the industrialization of Japan and, later, the devastation of World War II. Because so many Japanese gardens across North America have landscapes inspired by designs before the 19^th century, the Natural Garden of Portland Japanese Garden is a unique joy to be immersed in.

The space is approached by walking a long and narrow path that slopes down by a hillside of matcha-green moss and a small and humble stone carving of a jizo, a Buddhist figure seen as a protector of travelers and children. After passing through a wooden gate with asymmetrical doors (one wide, one narrow), new lands are unveiled. Maples are delicately layered over gentle waterfalls, languid ponds, and bubbling streams. A series of winding stairs takes visitors past camellia and rhododendron. Interestingly, there are stone lanterns within, but most are so inconspicuous that they may fail to catch the eye. Two areas with long wooden benches hug its side before the path winds to a machiai (sheltered waiting area) that showcases the depth of the space and treats listeners to the sound of coursing water. Finally, an ascent through azaleas takes one by a distinctly different karesansui (raked gravel garden) before it places people on pathway adjacent to a pavilion.

The Natural Garden’s style is known as zoki no niwa (雑木の庭) in Japanese. While this literally translates to “natural tree garden,” it does not quite capture its essence. Looking at the words that join to create the Japanese appellation helps provide some insight. Within the context of a garden, zoki means anything that is not a tree that is maintained to be kept at human scale—its “opposite” being niwa ki, a garden tree. However, because it is a niwa, or garden, we reveal the paradox—the trees here are maintained and kept to natural scale, but in a manner that makes them look as though they have been untouched.

The aesthetics of zoki no niwa can be traced directly to two influential figures in Japanese landscape architecture in the 20^th century: Kenzo Ogata (1912-1988) and his mentor Juki Iida (1890-1977). Both Ogata and Iida were known figures in the United States, with Ogata having worked on sites such as the East-West Center at the University of Hawai’i.² Iida created more than 1,000 gardens but most have not survived—Seattle Japanese Garden is one of the few of his designed works that still exists today.³

The Moss Garden Before the Natural Garden

Initially there was no Natural Garden in Portland Japanese Garden. Professor Takuma Tono of Tokyo Agricultural University envisioned four garden styles when he was retained by the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon in the early 1960s to design its landscape in Portland’s Washington Park. Later into his tenure he was asked to design a fifth one: a moss garden.

The idea of building a moss garden was met with Tono’s approval. In a letter he wrote to the Garden’s Board of Trustees President Warren Munro in 1967 he noted that a “moss garden would be very interesting and unique in the States.” He sketched out the location he felt best for it, beside a karesansui (the Sand and Stone Garden), noting “this is [a shady] and [a] good place for cultivating moss.” In later correspondence with the organization, he acknowledged the difficulty in fostering such a landscape, cautioning, “One cannot expect such [gardens to be] successful from the [beginning]. Even in Japan there is just only one at Kyoto.”

The organization would find that the moss garden as it was constructed back then was not thriving in the way they had hoped. William “Robbie” Robinson, head gardener for Portland’s Parks and Recreation Bureau in this era recounted in a 2010 interview with Portland Japanese Garden Board of Trustees President Ed McVicker (2009-10) that the mosses, brought in from mountain ranges in the area, got overrun by wildlife. “The birds were taking the [the moss], flying away with them, [using the] mosses for their nests,” Robinson shared. “Other animals that were on the ground were tearing it up, looking for worms and different things. So, they had to give up the little Moss Garden.”

The Natural Garden would take its place under the guidance of Hachiro Sakakibara, the third Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden (1972-74) and a student of Ogata. His predecessor and friend, Hoichi Kurisu (Garden Director, 1968-73), recalls that he and Sakakibara recognized the Moss Garden was failing and that a new course of action was needed. “When Sakakibara san arrived, he also thought that there had to be something done to the Moss Garden, and we talked about what we could do,” Kurisu told McVicker in 2010 when the former garden directors of Portland Japanese Garden returned for a reunion. “I remember that we then showed a design we proposed at the Board meeting but we never got a response of whether we would be allowed to do it or not. By that time, Sakakibara san was officially hired at the Garden and since the board never gave a clear answer, I remember him going in and asking for an answer. The Board finally decided to approve this project. It is a natural-style garden that we implemented.”

By the time the Moss Garden was undergoing its transition into the Natural Garden, Professor Tono’s contract had ended with Portland Japanese Garden. Nonetheless, Sakakibara says Tono supported the transformation. “Both Professor Tono and Ogata sensei played an important role in the landscaping world, which allowed them to become very close,” Sakakibara pointed out to Ed McVicker. “Also, by that time, zoki no niwa had become a mainstream style of garden in Japan. Professor Tono himself had also designed and built a zoki no niwa. I believe that he trusted me because he approved of the zoki no niwa and because of the underlying trust between Ogata sensei and him.”

A Reflection of a Lineage of Garden Directors

Hachiro Sakakibara is credited as the individual most responsible for building the Natural Garden that is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of guests at the Oregon attraction every year. “The creator [of the zoki no niwa] is actually Ogata-san’s master, Juki Iida,” Sakakibara recounted to McVicker.  “Later, Ogata-sensei introduced the zoki no niwa into public spaces such as parks, spreading it nation-wide. Now, zoki no niwa has become a mainstream style of garden. [It] incorporates the natural landscape rather than having man-made elements like the…old historical gardens in Kyoto. In Japan, the landscape is reflected in the zoki no niwa.”

Kurisu was also a student of Ogata and is well familiar with the origins of the Natural Garden Style. “[Iida and Ogata] were strongly impressed when they saw the Musashino wooded area, a small area in the Kanto Plain,” Kurisu told McVicker. “They believed that it had an amazing beauty to it and captured the essence of nature. They thought that it would be a great idea to incorporate that in a garden.”

Of the ten Japanese-born garden experts to have led Portland Japanese Garden through its more than 60 years of existence, five were students of Ogata. Toru Tanaka, the eighth Garden Director (1988-91) in this lineage, was among them. “It is not about being naturalistic but it’s about bringing the actual nature into the garden,” Tanaka shared with McVicker. “They introduced a new definition of beauty. Unlike the Kyoto-style gardens, in which each individual tree is carefully tended, a natural-style garden is concerned with the overall effect and the feeling you get. The introduction of this new style of garden was revolutionary for the history of landscaping and changed the general perception by bringing in the nature itself.”

Takao Donuma, another student of Ogata and the seventh Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden (1985-87), helps illustrate the Natural Garden’s qualities by comparing it to the other four, more highly-articulated garden spaces. “I think that the focus in the four [other] gardens is to look and enjoy,” Donuma said in conversation with McVicker. “The modem zoki no niwa focuses on ‘feeling’ the garden and feeling embraced by the garden. It is more of a garden that is there to be used…a zoki no niwa does have ponds, stones, steppingstones, and azumaya (rustic hutches) that are elements seen in other gardens, but I think the difference is felt when you walk into the zoki no niwa and feel relaxed and peaceful.”

The fifth student and thus far unnamed student of Ogata to be Garden Director of Portland Japanese Garden is Michio Wakui (1974-76). “Probably the Flat Garden is the complete opposite style from the zoki no niwa,” he said, echoing Donuma’s thoughts. “The best part of the zoki no niwa is in its softness. Enjoying the softness of the trees and its branches and enjoying the changes in all four seasons is what a zoki no niwa is about.”

Hugo Torii has served as Garden Curator for the organization since 2021. In explaining the Natural Garden, he points to a 1973 book penned by Ogata, Sakuhin-shu Niwa, Shizen to Zokei (Literally, “Collected Works: Garden, Nature and Form”). Torii notes a passage in which the niwashi (garden master) gives guidelines for residential gardens that provide insight on the philosophy of natural gardens: “Ogata reminds us that those making residential gardens should be conscious that they’re making a living space. They should be aesthetically pleasing but also calming and provide space to heal from the stress of a restless world.”

Torii also points to how Iida and Ogata, both well into adulthood by the time WWII occurred, were informed by the breakneck development Japan underwent after the Edo Period (1603-1868). “Rapid industrialization had a great impact on how the Japanese valued gardens,” Torii shares. “The aftermath seemed to be a growing demand for the preservation of green spaces and the healing of nature. Gardeners were concerned that people were becoming further distanced from the natural world.”

Aside from the more philosophical qualities of the zoki no niwa, there was a practical reason for its emergence as a garden style—its affordability. “As you know, in 1945 when WWII ended, Japan had nothing left and had to rebuild everything from scratch,” Kurisu commented to McVicker. “The Japanese people had no money but I think they still wanted Japanese gardens. … In addition, since this new style of garden uses native plants, zoki, it was a low-cost garden compared to traditional gardens that used expensive pines. Juki Iida sensei and Kenzo Ogata, therefore, combined native trees and the traditional Japanese garden techniques to create the zoki no niwa.”

“People were trying to heal from the War, longing for a place to heal,” Kurisu continued. “And the garden that was created to respond to the longing of these people. I think, [that comes with] the zoki no niwa. It’s a very gentle form of garden. I remember that it took my breath away when I first visited a zoki no niwa after I returned from the U.S. It was May, when I returned, and the sun came through the branches of the trees, glistening on the surface of the flowing stream. It felt like being in a different world and I think that the zoki no niwa is a garden that pursues that feeling.”

Part of what helps conjure this feeling Kurisu mentions are gardening techniques that are tailored to the space. Torii shares that part of the approach taken is illustrated by Iida Juki Teien Sakuhinshu, or “The Gardens of Juki Iida,” published in 1980 by Garden Society of Japan (Nihon Teien Kyokai). “IIda used the term no-zukashi (野透かし); a specialized pruning technique for his natural gardens,” Torii offers. “The guidance provided is that one should prune according to a plant’s natural form and character. You don’t only work from the outside to make branches shorter, you use degawari (出替り), meaning a ‘switching branches technique’ to maintain their size. The same is applied for mid-sized and smaller-sized plants as well. No-zukashi is one of the most difficult pruning styles to work on trees; it has to be as if all the branches were removed by nature instead of the hands of gardeners.”

Every garden space in Portland Japanese Garden is special and deeply meaningful in their own right. But perhaps the Natural Garden is the most deeply tied to the organization’s history, itself a reaction of sorts to World War II. Portland and its state of Oregon were hostile environs for those of Japanese ancestry ever since those from the archipelago nation first settled here in the 19^th century. During WWII, conditions reached a sickening, dizzying new height of animosity when many in power urged for their banishment to concentration camps and fought against their return. Portland Japanese Garden was founded because of a grassroots effort catalyzed by those of Japanese descent and their allies in various cultural organizations and civic and government leadership to help repair the fractured relationship and move forward together in harmony and peace through nature.

Japan’s greatest dramatist, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, once noted, “Art is something which lies in the slender margin between the real and unreal.”⁴ While he was discussing bunraku (puppet theater), this perspective perhaps also captures the joyous beauty of the Natural Garden—a liminal space that looks like it has been dreamt rather than built by hand. Of course, as Polyani might note, expression of its virtues can only do so much to lend understanding. If one truly wants to know the Natural Garden, they must visit the Natural Garden. Portland Japanese Garden is ready to receive you. 

Works Cited

¹ Polyani, M. (2009). The tacit dimension. The University of Chicago Press.

² East-West Center. (n.d.) About EWC: Japanese garden. https://www.eastwestcenter.org/about/japanese-garden

³ Kennedy, C. (2017, February 14). A quiet legacy: The Juki Iida scroll. https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/blog/2017/2/14/cjy4gju7a7svo3205d23wl7rfmganu

⁴ Keene, D. (1981). Appreciations of Japanese culture. Kodansha International.

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Oregon ArtsWatch, an independent Oregon-focused website featuring arts journalism and criticism recently wrote about Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru, an exhibition now on show through January 27, 2025. Writer and art historian Laurel Reed Pavic notes, “…The contradictions mirror the truth at the heart of kintsugi: something has to be broken in order to be repaired. These contradictions also parallel what makes the Portland Japanese Garden a perfect venue for Fukumaru’s work. It was founded after World War II – after the United States had put citizens of Japanese-origin U.S. citizens in camps and ultimately dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – with the express aim of community healing. It’s a beautiful place; the catalyst for its creation was anything but. Fukumaru references the ‘authenticity and magic’ of the place as well as the realization that ‘care and love are the main ingredients.'” To read the full article, click the link below.

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Islands, a magazine that has covered travel destinations for more than 40 years recently turned to Reddit to discover which gardens are considered the best in the U.S. Writer Sky Ariella notes that Portland Japanese Garden was among them, sharing, “Oregon isn’t lacking in gorgeous gardens, but one of the most highly regarded of them all is the Portland Japanese Garden.” To read the full article click the button below.

Related: Islands writer Leslie Veliz also writes that Portland Japanese Garden is the best Japanese garden outside of Japan.”

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