Portland Japanese Garden

June marks the official start of summer and the beginning of gift-buying season: weddings, graduations, Father’s Day, and housewarming parties are imminent. We have a new crop of goodies in the Garden Gift Store and online for everyone and every occasion on your list. Books, CDs, sake sets, pen trays, 2011 Garden Calendars, and our exclusive logo-wear are just a few ideas that come to mind. Let us help you with suggestions on our blog at shop.japanesegarden.com/blog.

On June 12-13, the Garden is host to the Rose Festival sanctioned Sogetsu School Ikebana Exhibition. Stop by the store for two of the books featuring the school’s lemoto, or grand master, Akane Teshigahara and save 50% on each book (60% for Garden members).  — Read more »

In honor of Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival on March 3, all of our cute Momiji dolls are marked at 20% off through March 15. Momiji dolls are based on the classic Japanese Kokeshi dolls, but these adorable friendship dolls have a secret! Turn them upside down and find a tiny card inside the base to write your own greeting. Each 3″ collectable doll comes with a heart sticker and a collector’s card with a “happy” message packaged in a resealable, ribbon-tied gift bag.

The Ohara School of Ikebana will be displaying their beautiful work on the weekend of March 21 and the Camellia Society’s exhibition will be on display the following weekend and will include a juried show. To further inspire your floral creativity we are offering all of our ikebana books, vessels, tools, and kenzan at 20% off from March 21–29.  — Read more »

O-Tsukimi, Moonviewing

September is one of the loveliest months in the Garden, bringing one of the Garden Gift Store’s favorite festivals, Otsukimi, or Moonviewing. Look for us all three evenings, September 14, 15, & 16, as we will have a special Moonviewing table in the Pavilion complete with Tsuen teas, books, music CDs, and more. This year’s event features a poetry reading by Peter Kendall and koto music by Mitsuki Dazai. We will have all three of Peter’s Japanese Garden haiku books available and Mitsuki’s beautiful Autumn CD.

The Garden Gift Store will be open late during Moonviewing, so please stop by and see the latest shipment of the symbolic Moonviewing rabbit on plates, bowls, and chopsticks. More music of the season will be available along with our latest books, calendars, and stationery.  — Read more »

Incense is an important part of many Japanese celebrations, including Obon, the Lantern Festival (celebrated here at the Garden on Saturday, August 16). In the Garden Gift Store and on our store web site we have many different incense scents; both cone and stick varieties, and several styles of burners. For the traveling incense user, check out our travel tins complete with incense, special burning mat, and travel tin.

Jonathan Ley

Don’t forget the Garden’s new logo-wear when shopping for back-to-school clothes this year. Our all-cotton t-shirts are sized for pre-schoolers to college kids and everybody in between. Keep dry and warm while promoting your favorite Garden with our umbrellas, hooded sweatshirts, and adjustable hats.

In Japan, Golden Week is celebrated the first week of May and Kodomo no Hi, or Children’s Day is a featured festival. We’ll celebrate Children’s Day here at the Garden on Sunday, May 4, and have fun things for boys and girls including stickers, action figures, books, toys, and of course koi nobori—the fish-shaped windsocks that fly all over Japan in honor of the festivities.

Sunday, May 11 is Mother’s Day and the Garden is a great place to celebrate. We have beautiful scarves, jewelry, bath essentials, incense, tea sets, and more to honor Mom. Please visit us on the east deck of the Pavilion on Mother’s Day from 11am-4pm to pick up the special gifts we’ve selected just for the occasion.

The Garden is pleased to announce our new tea, packaged specially for the Garden by the Tsuen Tea Company. For over 800 years, the Tsuen family has been growing and selling the finest green tea from the city of Uji, Japan’s oldest and most respected tea-growing region, famous as purveyors of tea for the emperors of Japan. Tsuen tea is grown high on the misty mountains of Uji, with its very cold winters and extremely hot and humid summers. These conditions create the distinctive Uji flavor that is sought after throughout the world.

Stop by the Garden Gift Store and pick up some sencha, organic stoneground matcha (ceremony tea), house blend, or genmaicha tea from Tsuen, or order online.