Urasenke Seattle, welcome

LEGACY OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN OF SEATTLE:
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (excerpt)
Koichi Kobayashi, Affiliate Professor, University of Washington
Kobayashi & Associates, Inc.

A highly regarded, peaceful sanctuary tucked into the University of
Washington’s Arboretum, the Seattle Japanese Garden is one of the
finest Japanese gardens to be constructed outside Japan. Rated among
the top ten most favorite Japanese Gardens in the United States by a
garden journal, the Seattle Japanese Garden is an extremely popular
destination for locals and visitors alike in the Puget Sound area, and rivals
the famous Japanese Gardens of Portland and San Francisco.

The three and a half-acre garden contains the features of stroll-through
gardens of the formal (shin-style) type, built during the Momoyama
Period (late 16th century) and early Edo period (early 17th century).
The stroll garden style aims to create the illusion of several landscapes
within a garden, which reveal, suggest and disappear along a path.

Kiyoshi Inoshita, one of the garden’s initial designers, describes his design
intent:

The flow of water, which originated at the high mountain ranges,

transforms itself as it continues its way through the landscape;

first it turns

into a waterfall, then into a stream, washing the bank

by a tea hut, and

finally becomes a lake.

At the lakeshore are a variety of features such as a

rock

promontory, an inlet, and steep slopes, through which water

continues its way, until it reaches a village (an image of the village

symbolically represented by a cherry grove, iris paddies, and a

moon

viewing hill).

At the village, there appears an island connected to the shore

two different bridges. At the end of the lake is a stone paved

boat

launch, which symbolically represent a fishing village. There,

the water

disappears from one’s sight, leaving the expectation

that it will be joining

the greater ocean.

In historical documents written by the initial designers, no references are
made to other gardens that could have influenced the design of the
Seattle Japanese Garden. However Professor Makoto Suzuki of Tokyo
Agricultural University has started researching the possible influence of
the Horai En Garden, which existed at the site of the Matsuura Clan
Family residence in Tokyo, and was built in the Edo period, as well as the
Katsura Imperial Village in Kyoto.

History
The initial movement to create a Japanese Garden in Seattle began in
1909, when the Alaska Yukon Exhibition was held. A Japanese Pavilion
with an accompanying garden was built for the fair, which ignited regional
interest in and excitement about Japanese gardens.

In 1924, the Olmstead Brothers designed the University of Washington
Arboretum, and by 1937, officials agreed that the Arboretum needed a
Japanese Garden. The realization of the garden, however, had to wait till
the end of the World War II, when racial and political tensions eased.

It wasn’t until 1957 that The Arboretum Foundation began raising funds
for the creation of the Japanese Garden. The Foundation asked Tatsuo
Moriwaki of Tokyo Metro Parks to help guide the process. He selected
Kiyoshi Inoshita and Juki Iida to design the project.

The design was completed in 1959. Under the supervision of Juki Iida
and Nobumasa Kitamura, construction began in March 1960 and was
completed on an accelerated schedule within four months. Juki Iida
personally scouted and selected 580 large granite rocks (some of them
boulders) from the nearby Snoqualami Pass to insert in the garden. Since
the construction of the garden was originally envisioned to require three
years, the execution required a number of revisions and changes in
design throughout the garden. The construction was done mostly by
local Japanese-American gardeners. This was the first time, however,
that heavy construction equipment was employed in building a Japanese
garden by Juki Iida and his staff.

Built in 1959, the Seattle Japanese Garden was the earliest postwar public
construction of a Japanese-style garden on the Pacific Coast, and thus
has had a strong influence on the design on Japanese gardens
throughout the region. A number of local landscape designers have been
deeply influenced by the garden and Juki Iida. One of whom is Robert
Shields, an architect and member of the Seattle Japanese Garden Society
for over 25 years, who designed and constructed a Japanese-style
garden at his former residence on Whidbey Island, Washington.

for full text:
http://www.jgarden.
org/images_howto/Kobayashi_SeattleJapaneseGarden.pdf

U R A S E N K E
FOUNDATION SEATTLE BRANCH
Transmitting the living art of Chado, the Way of Tea,
through harmony, respect, purity and tranquility

japanese
garden
legacy