The Japanese Garden - American Style
Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden
June 17, 2007 to January 6, 2008
Painting by Chiura Obata depicting the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, ca. 1943.
Gift of James T. Yamakoshi (94.29.2).
The Japanese term mie gakure, which translates as “hide and reveal,” is a central design concept in some forms of Japanese-style gardens. In contrast to Western European gardens whose paths and approaches tend to involve straight, direct lines leading towards a visible goal, the paths in Japanese stroll gardens characteristically curve, and elements are arranged such that new, unexpected views and features are revealed at different turns. The garden itself is continuously reframed—and therefore reseen from different vantage points along the route.
Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden provides new frames through which to consider and experience Japanese-style gardens and the vernacular landscapes of Japanese American communities. In this multimedia exhibition designed by artists Hirokazu Kosaka and Clement Hanami, the “Japanese garden” provides the entry into an exploration of how Japanese Americans have shaped the landscape by designing, building, and maintaining a variety of outdoor environments.
Hideo Wataguchi working on his route in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, 2007.
Photograph by Shane Sato.
Highlighting how West Coast Japanese Americans drew upon their agricultural and ethnic backgrounds to carve out a viable vocational niche in gardening, this exhibition offers a glimpse beneath the façades and beyond the stereotypes. Landscaping America reveals the personal stories, historical journeys, labor, creativity, and communities that underlie the surface of the “Japanese garden.” The exhibition explores how Japanese Americans have fashioned landscapes that reflect their collective experiences and individual creativity, in the process reinterpreting Japanese garden traditions, offering alternative approaches to working with nature, and increasing the diversity of the American landscape.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2006 issue of the Japanese American National Museum Member Magazine.
