Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, cultural institution, and public attraction in Portland, Oregon. The Garden, which opened to the public in 1967, occupies in Portland's Washington Park and is adjacent to the International Rose Test Garden. Originally designed by Professor Takuma Tono of Tokyo Agricultural University, it features five historic garden spaces that demonstrate different styles of Japanese landscape architecture, a Pavilion that stages art exhibitions and shopping marketplaces, a Japanese tea house, a "Cultural Village" that hosts programming, dining, and retail, and an Entry Garden that guests walk through after purchasing admission. A tourist attraction that welcomes more than 400,000 visitors annually, Portland Japanese Garden has been proclaimed as the "most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan."
History
Portland Japanese Garden considers its year of establishment to be 1963 when it was formed as the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon, the official name it still uses on legal documentation. Its most recent milestone anniversary was in 2023 when it celebrated 60 years.Pre-Garden History
In the years following the end of World War II, cultural and civic organizations, business leaders, and governmental officials in Portland were interested in reigniting and creating relationships with their counterparts in Japan. Progress on this goal was made in 1959 when Portland and Sapporo became sister cities following the signing of an agreement by Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk and Sapporo Mayor Yosaku Harada. Another means of pursuing friendship with Japan was one that was seen throughout the United States in this era: friendship gardens.There had been interest in Portland in building a Japanese garden since at least the 1950s. The idea gained momentum when the Japanese Society of Oregon formed a Garden Committee in 1959. In 1961, the Japan Society formally proposed the founding of a nonprofit organization that would plan and raise funds for a Japanese garden on the former site of the Portland Zoo in Washington Park. Backed by City Commissioner Ormond Bean, the City of Portland agreed to a 99-year lease of the old zoo site. In 1962, Mayor Schrunk created the Formal Japanese Garden Commission, which in turn would become a private nonprofit organization rebranded as the Japanese Garden Society of Oregon. In 1963, the Society held its first meeting at the offices of the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau.
1960s
After having agreed to a deal in principle the year prior, Professor Takuma Tono of Tokyo Agricultural University was officially hired to design Portland Japanese Garden. He had gained some attention for his construction of a replica of Japan's Ryoanji Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a raked gravel garden and style that was less well known to Western audiences at this time. Rather than create one large garden, he instead successfully proposed creating four different spaces within the entire grounds, each reflective of a different era of in Japanese landscape architecture: a hira niwa, chisen kaiyu shiki teien, karesansui, and roji.In 1964 the Garden hired Kinya Hira, its first Garden Director and a student of Tono at Tokyo Agricultural University. Hira was the first of a lineage of Japanese-born gardening experts to oversee Portland Japanese Garden's landscape design and maintenance that has continued throughout the organization's existence.
After approximately four years of construction, the Garden opened to the public in 1967 and saw more than 28,000 visitors. The Garden continued to see upgrades and additions after it opened. In 1968, the Garden's tea house, named Kashintei, was constructed in Japan, disassembled, shipped, and the reassembled in the organization's Tea Garden. In this same year, the Garden also built a fifth garden space under Tono's supervision that no longer exists as such: a Moss Garden.
1970s
In the 1970s, additional updates were made to the Garden's landscape. The Moss Garden wasn't thriving as desired so it was replaced with a Natural Garden, a style known as zoki no niwa. A gate, named the "Antique Gate" by the organization, was installed at the foot of the hill leading up to the rest of the Garden. This decade also saw the arrival of the Garden's first koi and the first hosting of its annual O-Bon festival.The 1970s also saw the visit of Japan Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in 1978. It was reported that he was "surprised and impressed by the size and beauty of the gardens."
1980s
In 1980, the Garden dedicated its Pavilion, a building that had been part of initial design plans but delayed in construction due to lack of funds. A ceremony was held on May 18, the same day Mount St. Helens erupted.In 1981, the Garden remained open for winter for the first time in its history. It has remained open throughout winter since.
In 1988, Portland Japanese Garden received Nobuo Matsunaga, Ambassador of Japan to the United States. He proclaimed the Garden to be "the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan." Ambassador Matsunaga would also describe the Garden as a "unique treasure."
1990s
In the 1990s, one of the few remaining buildings from the old Portland Zoo was demolished and replaced with an updated structure that became the site of the organization's first Gift Shop. It is now the site of the Garden's Membership Center.In 1996, a Japanese water harp was installed near the Pavilion during a symposium for the International Association of Japanese Gardens held in Portland. The symposium, believed to be the first of its kind to be held anywhere, drew 200 people including a delegation from the Garden Society of Japan.
2000s
In 2005, Portland Japanese Garden hired Steve Bloom to be its executive director. He would retire in 2024 as the organization's CEO after having led the organization for 20 years.In 2008, the Garden added regular exhibitions of traditional and contemporary Japanese art to its programming under the supervision of Curator of Culture, Art, and Education Diane Durston. The exhibition was The Quiet Voice of Metal & Stone, featuring the work of sculptor Michihiro Kosuge.
2010s
In 2010, the Garden welcomed back all of its former Garden Directors, each a Japanese-born gardening expert, to Portland for a reunion. They included: Kinya Hira, Hoichi Kurisu, Hachiro Sakakibara, Michio Wakui, Masayuki Mizuno, Kichiro Sano, Takao Donuma, and Toru Tanaka. Sadafumi Uchiyama was part of the festivities in his role of Garden Curator.Kengo Kuma was retained this decade to begin work on an expansion of the Garden. It would culminate in the opening of the Garden's Cultural Village in 2017, a courtyard beyond the historic garden spaces that included a small gallery, café, gift shop, a classroom, performance space, garden house, and administrative offices.
In 2015, the organization successfully returned crossbeams of a Shinto shrine gate to Hachinohe, Japan after they had washed up on Oregon's shores following a 2011 tsunami in Japan.
2020s
In 2020, the Garden announced its new sibling organization and "global cultural initiative," Japan Institute which it shares will expand upon the programming that had already been taking place there. Among its earliest programming have been symposia in Tokyo, London, New York, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, donations of stone lanterns to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Brooklyn, and artist residencies.Physical Spaces
Portland Japanese Garden initially opened to the public in 1967 on a landscape that encompassed. It was later expanded in 2017 to its current-day size of.Historic Garden Spaces
The Garden will sometimes refer to itself as a "museum of gardens" because rather than feature one specific garden style, its five historic spaces each represent a different approach and/or era of Japanese landscape architecture.Flat Garden
The Flat Garden is an example of the evolution of the dry landscape style of the karesansui. Flat planes of the ground are balanced against stones, clipped shrubbery, and trees to create a depth of space. The Flat Garden is meant to be seen from a single viewpoint, such as from inside the Pavilion building adjacent to it or on the building's veranda.The Pavilion has been adjacent to the Flat Garden since its construction was finished in 1980. On its eastern side, it gives a view of the City of Portland and, further into the distance, Mount Hood. The Flat Garden also has something called the "Iyo Stone," in honor of its first board president, Philip Englehart.
Natural Garden
The Natural Garden is an example of the zoki no niwa style, a design approach popularized in the mid 20th century, and occupies the space previously known as the Moss Garden before the area was transformed in the 1970s. It is designed to look more like a forest than the other garden spaces and thus uses less carefully pruned plants. It features steps, small bodies of water, and a small sheltered area called a machiai.Sand and Stone Garden
The Sand and Stone Garden is in the karesansui, or dry landscape, style with a plot of raked gravel partially surrounded by stucco walls. On top of the gravel are six moderately-sized stones and one tall stone. Tono, the original designer of Portland Japanese Garden, noted that this space can be interpreted in many ways, and offered that it can be thought to depict a story of Buddha and seven tigers.Strolling Pond Garden
The Strolling Pond Garden depicts the chisen kaiyu shiki teien style and is the largest of the garden spaces, featuring two ponds, a waterfall, moon bridge, zig-zag bridge, hillside with cherry trees, and several stone lanterns. It depicts a style of gardens that were popular with aristocrats and daimyo, or feudal lords, during Japan's Edo period. There are several notable elements of this garden space, including:· The Heavenly Falls is a 35-foot-tall waterfall that cascades into a large pond filled with koi. It is built in an area that had been a bear cave when the Portland Zoo had been operating on the landscape. It was damaged in 1997 and rebuilt under the supervision of the organization's second Garden Director, Hoichi Kurisu.
· The Koto-Ji Lantern was a gift from the City of Kanazawa to Portland Japanese Garden and is a replica of a notable lantern in Kenroku-en, one of Japan's most famous gardens.
· The Peace Lantern is a small stone lantern that was gifted by the Mayor of Yokohama in the 1950s. Originally placed in Portland's International Rose Test Garden, it was moved to the Japanese garden in the 1960s. Inscribed in it are the words "Casting the Light of Everlasting Peace."
· The Sapporo Pagoda Lantern was a gift from the City of Sapporo to its sister city, Portland, for the purposes of placing it in Portland Japanese Garden. It was first displayed at Portland Art Museum while the Garden prepared the ground to bear its weight.
· "The" Tree is a Japanese maple tree that has gained worldwide attention after having been featured in a National Geographic photo contest. In fall, when it changes colors, it will attract photographers from around the world.