The Portland Japanese Garden is making rapid progress in bringing together leaders in the Japanese garden industry towards the formation of a partnership with the purpose of preserving the design traditions and techniques of this historic art form. At the Portland Japanese Garden, we feel this responsibility keenly and are actively participating in ways that fit within our mission.

First, we’re working within our own Garden to preserve the actual gardening techniques (such as pruning, bamboo fencebuilding, and Zen garden raking) by offering local workshops and disseminating information about sources for materials for private and public gardens.

The Garden is increasing its connections with both professional and amateur gardeners. For example, our Garden Curator consults with other public gardens, and landscape architecture students are frequent visitors here on our site.

Classes and other informational programs are part of our educational mission.

To enhance the cultural experience, we utilize our educational programming (exhibitions, events, festivals) and the Garden itself to provide visitors with an interactive experience to help deepen their understanding of the Japanese aesthetic.

Finally, the Portland Japanese Garden is taking a leadership role in establishing a consortium of Japanese garden professionals and amateurs here in North America. By bringing together members of the Japanese garden field in North America to attend our workshops and lectures, we insure the preservation and advancement in the areas of design, construction, maintenance, and technique—all in ways that work for Westerners so that the traditional ways are not lost. We feel very strongly about our part in preserving this window on another culture.

— Steve Bloom

When I was in Japan for six months last year, one of my intentions was to get to know the professionals and workers in the Japanese garden industry. I wanted to find out as much as I could about current design initiatives, preservation of culture and tradition, what’s happening with gardening techniques, and of course the cultural and economic status of the gardens themselves. I also wanted to build a network of professionals that would link Japanese gardens in the U.S. and North America with their Japanese counterparts.

Not surprisingly, I found there to be concern in Japan about preserving the art form of the Japanese garden, especially in the face of modern landscape design as with the influence of America and Europe. There are also perplexing shortages of skilled designers, constructors, and gardeners who know the old techniques. There is no longer the same prestige in becoming a gardener, nor is there the same patronage of gardens that had earlier helped keep them sound.

The solutions are obvious but not easy. There is a need to build awareness of the importance of the garden as an art form in Japan and to enroll young people in preserving this aspect of culture. Few new gardens are being built, and some old gardens are being razed for new construction in Japan due to the expense of maintenance and, more importantly, the scarcity of real estate in this small, heavily populated country.

Because more Japanese gardens are currently being built outside of Japan than within, the industry professionals in Japan are beginning to look to the West for leadership in the field. The Portland Japanese Garden is at the top of this list. Our Garden is well-known in Japan, and the professionals I met there had much respect for it as one of the bestmaintained Japanese gardens in the world.

Our Garden is unusual in that it contains five garden styles within one garden, so we have become, in essence, a guardian of Japanese style. We also have a reputation for paying meticulous attention to detail so that the Garden remains in agreement with its original design. Our Garden pays its respects to its forerunners in Japan and that too is well known.

— Steve Bloom

As many of you know, last year I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend six months in Japan as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and as Visiting Scholar at Tokyo University of Agriculture. During my time at the University, I often ate lunch in the commons with some of the students so I could practice my Japanese language skills and learn firsthand about the Japanese people and their culture today. One day, when I was talking about how much I love our Japanese cultural events such as O-Bon and Moonviewing at the Garden in Portland, two of the young Japanese students looked intrigued. They said they had never experienced either festival and joked that perhaps I knew more about Japanese culture than they did.

That conversation provided me with important insights and strengthened my commitment to advance our amazing Garden in order to help promote and preserve the culture of Japan. While most people associate the preservation of culture with museums and their exhibitions of artifacts and art work, here at the Garden we have the unique opportunity to offer dissemination of both contemporary and traditional culture through activity as well as exhibition by using the Garden as a venue to provide significant cultural and aesthetic context. The Garden has long hosted tea ceremonies and ikebana demonstrations, added cultural festivals such as Kiku Matsuri, Children’s Day, and Hina Matsuri, and has expanded offerings to include a variety of hands-on workshops in traditional Japanese garden techniques and practices. All of these programs directly act to preserve traditional Japanese culture.

Equally important, under the extraordinary curatorial leadership of Diane Durston, last year’s exhibition on the arts of Northwest Native Americans and the indigenous Ainu people of Japan made striking and innovative cultural comparisons. The impressive Garden installation of Glass Art by Jun Kaneko in 2008 attracted an entirely new audience to the Garden, providing us all with an exciting and important convergence of contemporary Japanese artistic expression in a traditional setting. This year, we’re featuring both contemporary Japanese art in the work of indigo textile artist Shihoko Fukumoto in November as well as traditional art with the Hidden Art of Netsuke Carving exhibition in June. Such varied programs offer an important perspective on Japanese culture with the Garden as backdrop. These exhibitions and activities introduce customs and traditions of the past as well as innovative ideas of the present to audiences of today in creative and unique ways which speak, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, to many.

The Portland Japanese Garden is proud to play a role in helping familiarize the local community and visitors from around the nation and the world (including perhaps some friends from Japan), with the beauty of Japanese culture, old and new, right here in our amazing Garden.

— Steve Bloom

It’s often said that the Portland Japanese Garden is one of the finest Japanese gardens in the world. What makes our Garden so special?

First, it’s the design. Professor Takuma Tono, an internationally recognized authority on Japanese landscape design, oversaw most of the early construction and organization of the Garden into its five harmonious components. Professor Tono designed the Garden to be Japanese in aesthetic but uniquely Pacific Northwest.

Japanese aesthetics differ from those of our Western European origins, where gardens tend to emphasize blooms and bold splashes of color. The Japanese aesthetic is more subdued, with its shades of green, occasional colorful bloom, and attention to form. This aesthetic touches us each in a different way.

Second is the meticulous maintenance that our Garden receives. During the 1950s and 1960s, as relations with Japan were repaired, many Japanese “friendship” gardens were created in the United States and around the world. Of those gardens, few have received the loving attention to detail and aesthetics that ours has always had.

A staff of traditionally trained gardeners maintains the authentic play and interaction of sizes and shapes in our Garden that provokes a special kind of interest and again contributes to that tranquil sense of place. The Garden staff pays attention, in their pruning and shaping, to detail and size in a way that keeps things on a smaller, more human scale.

Third is the intensity, diversity, and quality of the programming. From the traditional tea ceremony and ikebana displays to last year’s striking Parallel Worlds exhibition, to the upcoming work of indigo textile artist Shihoko Fukumoto and the new Japanese Garden Lecture Series, the Portland Japanese Garden offers an extraordinary array of cultural events that depict the intersection of the modern and the traditional.

Dear Friends,

I am very pleased to announce that I have received an International Affairs Fellowship awarded by the Council on Foreign Relations and sponsored by Hitachi, Ltd. This is an exciting opportunity for the Portland Japanese Garden as well as for me personally.

This Fellowship will afford me the opportunity to conduct research in Japan in the area of cultural diplomacy, focusing on grassroots foreign relations through international cultural and artistic exchange—especially as it pertains to Sister City and Friendship Japanese Gardens.

The Portland Japanese Garden Board of Directors has approved a six-month sabbatical, allowing me to fulfill this fellowship and return to my position at the Garden upon completion of the appointment. During the fellowship period I will be in regular contact with the staff at the Garden to ensure the success of ongoing operations. Additionally, Cheryl Ching, our Director of Operations and a 25-year veteran of the Garden staff, will be appointed as Deputy Director to manage day-to-day activities. I have the fullest confidence in her abilities and judgment as well as in the entire staff.

I will begin residency in Japan in November 2008 and return the first of May 2009, and I look forward to keeping you updated about my experiences through emails and the Garden Clippings web blog. Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions and as always, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Stephen D. Bloom
Executive Director