This story is going to take a while to unfold, so grab a cup of coffee and come along with me on a journey. I took the above photograph in Kenrokuen Gardens, Kanazawa, Japan. This is considered one of the three best gardens in all of Japan. (The Japanese do all their “bests” in threes). The photograph is not the best of the hundreds of shots I took that day, but it is going to illustrate my point most perfectly. I would like to confess, straight up, I am a nut about Japanese culture. It is in my soul, and sings to me on every level, so much of what I am going to say should be taken with that big grain of salt in mind.
Last week I visited the Suitho-en or “Garden of Water and Fragrance” in Van Nuys, California. I was fascinated to visit this place for several reasons. One, I will drive hundreds of miles to see a Japanese Garden but more importantly it is built on the site of a water reclamation plant. (Read sewage treatment – The plant, however, does not process solids.) All the water used in this garden is from reclaimed wastewater.
The Garden was designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana. The doctor was originally from Hokkaido, Japan and is world famous for his garden designs. It is an exquisite design and has all of the proper elements. That being said, it just didn’t work. My feeling for the failure, has nothing to do with Dr. Kawanas’ design, but because it is here in America.
Let me begin with the cleanliness of the water. I know, I know, this is treated sewage water. With that in mind, it should be the cleanest you can get, it was not. That has nothing to do with the water, it has to do with the contrast of the Japanese garden mindset versus the American mindset. In Japan, this water would literally be swept every day. The algae would be gone, the leaves and other plant matter would be removed, and the water would literally sparkle with cleanliness. (The water in my Japanese picture isn’t the cleanest, but the sweepers were just down stream, working their way to this spot as I took this shot.)
The second thing that bothered me was the rock. Black round rock in Japanese gardens is ubiquitous and frankly, one of the finest, most serene and beautiful elements, in my opinion. Here it was laid in a bed of cement. No artistic bent, just classic, American, get it done, and never worry about having to rearrange or replace in the future. I have no pictures of this situation, it upset me too much to take photos of it, but what I did capture was the use of cement along the creek beds, it looked very unnatural.
Then there is just the overall care. Birds were allowed to defecate on the symbolic rocks. Well, duh, they do that. Not in Japan, in Japan, someone would have scrubbed those down in a minute. Lastly, are the flowers, which is why I chose these two particular pictures to contrast. In Japan no dead flower would be seen, someone would have come through and pruned it off at the first sign of decay.
I am a business woman. I know that 99% of why these differences occur are the all mighty dollar. That is not my point. I just wonder why we try to copy an aesthetic if we aren’t going to be true to it. Why do we feel the need to have a Japanese garden if we are going to “Americanize” it. Why not, just take the best of the esthetic and work our needs for low maintenance costs and litigious society into them. I have seen many Japanese gardens in the U.S. and they have worked, I just was sorry that the people in Van Nuys chose to go the “economical” way.
This is the zigzag bridge (Yatsuhashi) at the Van Nuys Garden. It is said that evil spirits can only walk in a straight line, so zigzag bridges keep the evil away. This particular bridge was gated, with no access, I walked with glee and delight over the one in Japan.
Here are a few more photos from the Van Nuys garden. They look lovely, but don’t look too close.
