Planting Design and Maintenance in the Seattle Japanese Garden—Part One: Planning, Creation, and the Garden’s Early Years
By Corrine Kennedy
Jūki Iida, renowned “landscape gardener,” oversaw the Seattle Japanese Garden’s construction in 1960. (photo, labeled “Mr. Iida, Landscape Contractor, Tokyo, Japan, Japanese Tea House Garden, Arboretum, 1960.” Don Sherwood Parks History Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives Photography Collection, Item number 30556)
“Far more difficult than making a Japanese garden is maintaining it. I hope for years to come you will carry out my instructions and take loving care of it.”
This is the first of two articles on planting design and maintenance in the Seattle Japanese Garden, bringing together information from documents published over many years, including articles in the Washington Park Arboretum’s quarterly Bulletin—and more recently, blog articles on the Garden’s website and translations of the garden designers’ original documents, available online through the Elisabeth C. Miller Library’s catalog. [In 1936, the WPA’s publication was titled Arboretum Bulletin (1936-1956), later renamed University of Washington Arboretum Bulletin (1957-1986) and finally retitled Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin (1986-present).] See “References” below.
Planting
Creating a Japanese garden in Seattle was first discussed in the early years of the 20th century, after the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition stimulated local interest in Japanese gardens, but World War II upended those plans. Finally, in 1957, the Arboretum Foundation appointed Emily Haig chairperson of a Special Projects Committee tasked with transforming vision into reality. As a gift of peace and goodwill, the Tokyo Metropolitan Park and Green Spaces Division, headed by Tatsuo Moriwaki, pledged to finance the garden’s design and the designers supervising its construction.
In consultation with Kiyoshi Inoshita, head of the Japan Institute of Landscape Architects, Moriwaki chose Jūki (also spelled Juuki) Iida to oversee the garden’s creation. Iida was an internationally known garden designer who had created many naturalistic gardens in Japan and throughout the world. (An accurate translation of how he described his profession is “landscape gardener,” rather than “landscape architect.”)
In 1959, Inoshita, Iida, and five other Tokyo Parks Division designers drafted plans for a Momoyama-style stroll garden. Large in scale and created for enjoyment, stroll gardens feature a large central pond surrounded by a meandering path, often incorporating a teahouse and its garden. They are designed to be experienced as journeys past scenes from nature, literature and art.
In late November of 1959, Jūki Iida and landscape engineer Nobumasa Kitamura traveled to Seattle to present the design, survey the site, and finalize preliminary plans, which they accomplished in only two weeks. Of necessity, Iida hired Japanese American landscape contractors to build the Garden. He chose William Yorozu as prime contractor, responsible for planting, Richard Yamasaki for stone setting, and Kazuo Ishimitsu for structures. Iida also purchased 800 tons of large granite rocks from private land on Bandera Mountain, noting that they were “similar to, and even superior to rocks from Tsukuba Mountain in the area of Ōshima in Japan.” He returned home in mid-December, but foundational work shaping the land and pond began immediately. As planned, Iida and Kitamura returned to Seattle in early March,1960. With Kitamura’s assistance, Iida personally supervised the Garden’s creation, which was completed in about three months’ time.
Design Descriptions
Kiyoshi Inoshita was responsible for our Garden’s overall stroll garden design, which he described as follows:
“Originating from the mountains, a stream becomes a waterfall, then a brook, rinsing the foot of a teahouse. The brook descends a ravine, then flows into shallows, forming a backwater to a lake in the mountains. Along the lakeshore there is a cape, a cove, a cliff. It levels out and eventually presents the scene of a village with a cherry orchard, an iris bed, a moon-viewing platform and an island connected to both shores by two different kinds of bridges. At the end of the lake, there is a boat landing with cut-stone pavement suggesting a harbor town. From there water flows out into the ocean.”
In the analysis of Professor Makoto Suzuki (of Tokyo Agricultural University), Inoshita was likely responsible for the formal design (known as shin style) of the Garden’s northern area, an important characteristic of Momoyama-style stroll gardens.
Iida, renowned for designing woodlands, was responsible for the naturalistic and informal southern portion of the garden—including the mountain area, with its conifers, Japanese maples and understory plants. The waterfall and 11-tier stone pagoda, which represents an ancient monastery, are here. Nearby is the teahouse, with the green simplicity of its inner and outer gardens (roji). Many decades later, his pupil Richard Yamasaki spoke about Iida’s design intent:
“He continued to help me see what he was creating, a Japanese garden in a foreign setting, but with strict application of certain Japanese principles, such as shizen sa (naturalness) and sono mama no susumu sugata, or the way natural elements age and spread.”
Iida’s and Inoshita’s design work resulted in a garden that blends Japanese culture and aesthetics with elements of nature. But plants are not more important than other natural elements, including rocks and water. In fact, the comprehensive document with translations of the design team’s writings about the Garden is titled Rock, Water, Plant, Garden Masters’ Record: Japanese Writers on the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, 1959-2010. Published in 2021, it was compiled, translated, and edited by long-time Garden Guides Shizue Prochaska and Julie Coryell, including translations by Guide Keiko Minami-Page.
Designers and builders of the Seattle Japanese Garden. Clockwise, from top left, photos are of Kiyoshi Inoshita; James Fukuda and Jūki Iida (from Emily Haig); Nobumasa Kitamura; Sad Ishimitsu (from Josef Scaylea’s article "3 Acres of Oriental Beauty" published in the Seattle Times, May 29, 1960); Richard Yamasaki (from Richard Yamasaki); and William S. Yorozu and Jūki Iida (from Emily Haig).
Designing with Plants
The Garden’s designers prepared a list of plants, emphasizing trees and shrubs, especially coniferous and broadleaf evergreens, as well as evergreen groundcovers. Asian conifers (such as Japanese black pine, Japanese red pine, and Japanese cedar) and Japanese maples were identified as essential elements. But sourcing the plants turned out to be a challenge.
In Rock, Water, Plant, Garden Masters’ Record: Japanese Writers on the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, 1959-2010, Nobumasa Kitamura left a detailed record of the obstacles and frustrations they experienced in searching for plants:
"As for plant material, there is some arrangement it seems, to request a donation from the Nursery Association and other groups…Their way is to wait for donations, then purchase the rest. So, when we ask for specific plants, and none come into our possession, the work does not progress at all."
Elsewhere in the document, he comments as follows:
“Although we were building a garden within the Arboretum, it was a big mistake to think we could transplant whatever trees we liked from anywhere in the Arboretum. All the trees they offered were from overcrowded areas or from a prospective highway, trees they were to discard anyway.
What they showed us from the nursery as Japanese trees to plant in the garden were Clethra/Summersweet and about 15 other kinds of miscellaneous small trees, only five feet tall…. We searched the nurseries in the suburbs for better materials, but the budget for trees was very tight. At one point, we really worried if we could complete the project.”
Kitamura also records his impression of the Arboretum Board’s members: “[They] are rich and enjoy flowers and garden shrubs as a hobby. They are not very business-like, as we had hoped they would be."
Eventually, though, he was satisfied that enough plants had been obtained:
“After finishing the rocks for the waterfall, we dug out maples… from the local bushes. Then we mixed them with other trees that we finally managed to purchase, such as Taxus cuspidata/Japanese yew, Pacific region, and Tsuga heterophylla/western hemlock to begin planting from the waterfall area.
As expected, Mr. Iida did a splendid job as a grand master who started a new trend utilizing zōkibayashi/woodlands in Japanese gardens. In no time from the meager local materials, he created the atmosphere of a deep mountain… gradually, our financial condition improved. By the time of the opening, we were able to complete planting the whole garden…. We used 423 trees and about 4,000 shrubs.”
Rock, Water, Plant also includes Jūki Iida’s record of plant finding experiences and decisions:
“The next item of business was trees and shrubs for the garden. I had expected some difficulties but after we surveyed local nurseries, we found there were plenty of evergreen conifers and deciduous trees such as maples. But the specific Japanese varieties of broadleaf evergreens such as mochi no ki/Ilex integra or holly; shii/Pasania or Lithocarpus edulis or Tanbark Oak; and mokkoku/Ternstroemia or Japanese cleyera were scarce and where I did find them, they were not thriving. Assuming there was a lack of soil compatibility I decided not to use them. As the rhododendron is the Washington State flower, and there are many varieties, I thought that they were very useful as long as I avoided gaudy ones.
The nurseries stocked only small plants under seven inches, which made planting them harmoniously with the large-scale rocks difficult. Most of the trees were upright, requiring deep consideration in how to plant them appropriately. There were abundant choices for ground covers.”
Iida provides planting details in another document, Diary: Creating an Oversees Garden in the University of Washington May 1959 – October 1960, and July – August 1973:
“I used conifers and deciduous trees around the waterfall to express feelings of being in a deep mountain forest…. We planted rhododendrons as undergrowth. For the ground covers, we had plenty of varieties of them, such as Pachysandra terminalis, Gaultheria, and many kinds of mosses. In any case, the harmony between the garden rocks and the trees was not good and the waterfall hill was worse.”
He also decided to include Pacific Northwest native plants in the Garden, believing that authentic Japanese-style gardens are rooted in place, the country and region where they’re created. Fortunately, some PNW natives, notably conifers and bigleaf and vine maples, were already growing on site.
In summary, the following paragraph lists some of the most important trees, shrubs and groundcovers planted in 1960. Some have remained in the Garden; others have been maintained there through replanting:
“Evergreens—notably conifers, broadleaf evergreens, and groundcovers—provide structure throughout the year. Important Japanese plant species include pine, hinoki false cypress, camellia, evergreen azalea, bamboo, low-growing grass-like plants, and mosses. Japanese maples and cherry trees contribute seasonal shades of green as well as vibrant spring and fall colors.”
Opening Day and the Garden’s First Year
The Seattle Japanese Garden was dedicated and opened to the public on June 5, 1960. (Although presented as a finished garden, some initial planting had not been completed and took place after opening day.) In his remarks, Iida emphasized that “far more difficult than making a Japanese garden is maintaining it.”
Several months later, on October 5, 1960, Japan’s Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko were on a U.S. tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Japan-US Treaty of Amity & Commerce and took part in a formal ceremony at the Seattle Japanese Garden. The Crown Prince planted a Mt. Fuji flowering cherry tree (Prunus serrulata ‘Shirotae’), symbolizing Japan, and the Crown Princess planted a white-barked birch (Betula pendula), symbolizing her family. (The cherry died and has been replaced several times, but the birch tree has remained healthy, and many decades later still stands, prominently located on the Garden’s west side, near the pond and the teahouse garden.)
It was soon evident that the location of the Garden’s entrance was ill-chosen. The original east entrance, known as the Emperor’s Gate, was too small and too far from the large parking lot south of the Garden. Visitors approaching the entrance had to walk along the dangerously fast traffic of Lake Washington Boulevard East. A re-design and additional plantings were urgently needed. So, in the fall and winter of 1960-61, University of Washington landscape planner Eric Hoyte, together with Richard Yamasaki, designed and created a new southern entrance.
The original plan had ended near the WPA stone bridge and large Kasuga lantern; this redesign project extended the Garden further south. The new entry area and its plantings were designed to be in harmony with the naturalistic design of the nearby mountain/woodland area. It also included a powerful rock arrangement, located on the left side of the path, near the Garden’s iconic weeping laceleaf Japanese maple. (Relatively recently, Seattle landscape architect Koichi Kobayashi verified that Yamasaki had designed and placed this rock arrangement, which isn’t typical of other Iida gardens, or of other rock arrangements within the Seattle Japanese Garden.)
Japanese Garden, Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, Washington, circa 1965. A view of its central pond, plantings, structures, and visitors. (Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives,” Item number 193363)
Gardeners in the Early Years, and Iida’s 1973 Return Visit
Kitamura reported that initially “Garden club ladies manage the garden well, give tours to visitors, and clean the garden.” Eventually, one gardener was hired. Minoru Takahashi, for example, was the only gardener for about a decade, beginning in 1968, when he was 77 years old. A few years later, from 1982 to 1989, Tim Grendon was the senior gardener, assisted during his tenure by gardener Ib Rossen.
When Jūki Iida returned to Seattle for two weeks in late July 1973, the Garden was overgrown, and necessary pruning had been done incorrectly or not at all. So, Iida instructed Dick Yamasaki, Kazuo Ishimitsu, and many volunteers, including members of the Seattle Gardeners’ Association, in proper pruning techniques and guidelines for managing the garden. In “Notes About Garden Maintenance August 1973” (the final section in his document, Diary: Creating an Overseas Garden In the University of Washington), Iida listed areas where plants had grown too tall, obstructing views, and areas where the plants were no longer in balance. He also noted plants with insect damage that required treatment, and plants that had become invasive, such as waterlilies overtaking the pond. Perhaps most important, he emphasized the importance of pruning the new growth of pine trees, referred to as candling, which had never been done.
Before returning to Japan, Iida reminded his student Richard Yamasaki and the volunteers assisting him that “No matter how beautifully a garden is designed, all is lost without proper and timely care.” Yamasaki, a Nisei who didn’t speak Japanese, had learned from and forged a relationship with Iida, and in the years to come he dedicated himself to Iida’s teachings and to the care and preservation of the garden.
Part Two of this series will focus on the many decades that followed, and the changes brought about by time, weather and climate events, disease and insect issues, and the growth and aging of the Garden’s plants. It will highlight the efforts of senior gardeners and the Garden’s consultants (responsible for overseeing the annual fine pruning of the pines, maples, and other specimen trees and shrubs) to address the above challenges—as well as limited resources and a management structure involving multiple organizations and personnel. Throughout their tenure, the senior gardeners and consultants have been dedicated both to finding sustainable ways of adapting to change and to honoring the design intent of the Garden’s original designers.
References:
· Coryell, editor, and Prochaska, Shizue, translator. (Including 2009 translations by Keiko Minami-Page.) Rock, Water, Plant, Garden Masters’ Record: Japanese Writers on the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, 1959-2010, 2021. https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/collections/RockWaterPlant_Prochaska_Coryell_2021.pdf
· Gorden, Karen (City Historic Preservation Office). City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board Report on Designation: Seattle Japanese Garden (LPB 298/08), 2008. https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/Landmarks/RelatedDocuments/seattle-japanese-garden-designation.pdf
· Iida, Jūki. Diary: Creating an Overseas Garden In the University of Washington May 1959 – October 1960, and July – August 1973. Coryell, Julie, editor and Prochaska, Shizue, translator. https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/collections/Iida_Diary2021.pdf
· Kennedy, Corinne. “A Quiet Legacy: The Juki Iida Scroll,” 2017. https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/blog/2017/2/14/cjy4gju7a7svo3205d23wl7rfmganu
· Kennedy, Corinne. “Juki Iida & Richard Yamasaki: Collaborating in Space & Time,” 2016. https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/blog/2016/04/09/juki-iida-richard-yamasaki-collaborating-in-space-time
· Kobayashi, Koichi. “Welcome Rock Arrangement by Dick Yamasaki: Seattle Japanese Garden at Washington Park Arboretum,” undated. https://www.academia.edu/22385362/Welcome_Rock_by_Dick_Yamasaki
· Tsuchihashi, Rumi, interviewer. “Oral History.” A series of four blog articles posted on the Seattle Japanese Garden website, 2024. Summaries of interviews by Rumi Tsuchihashi with four senior gardens and garden consultants (Jim Thomas, Mark Akai, Masa Mizuno, and Pete Putnicki) about their work maintaining and fostering the Seattle Japanese Garden. https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/oral-history
· Putnicki, Pete. “Honoring the Design Intent: Constant Change, Adaptive Maintenance, and the Development of the Plant Collection at the Japanese Garden.” Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin, Summer 2020. https://arboretumfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/putnicki_honoring-the-design-intent.pdf
Corinne Kennedy is a Garden Guide, frequent contributor to the Seattle Japanese Garden blog, and retired garden designer.