Experience the Magic of Moon Viewing in the Garden
Photo from Moon Viewing 2021
お月見 (otsukimi), moon viewing, dates back to 8th century Japan, when on the 8th month of the old Japanese calendar, aristocrats celebrated the beauty of the autumnal full moon with poetry and music.
This year, we are enhancing your night walk experience in our Japanese stroll garden, drawing inspiration from the beautiful tradition of autumn garden illuminations in Japan. Join us for two nights at the Seattle Japanese Garden's Moon Viewing 2025, where the Garden comes alive with the soft glow of lanterns and luminaries.
Night two of Moon Viewing 2025 will feature lighting displays by famed artist Yuri Kinoshita, a hypnotic Butoh performance by Kaoru Okumura and traditional Koto music performed by Mirei Zaborac of Japanese Koto Club. Moon Viewing mainstay Michael Dylan Welch of Haiku Society of America will also return to help guests try their hand at haiku composition and judge our annual Moon Viewing Haiku Contest.
Tickets will go on sale at 10am on Monday, August 4th and will surely sell quickly!
Yuri Kinoshita
Born In Kyoto, Japan, Yuri graduated with honors from Osaka Fashion Institute, Department of Interior Design. After traveling throughout Africa, Europe, India, Asia and South America, she settled in the U.S. to expand her artistic skills and passion for lighting design. Now based in Seattle, Yuri works with organic materials to create small and large scale sculptures of ‘Interwoven Lights’. Her site specific installations continue to explore the interrelations of play between light and shadow within her medium.
For this year's Moon Viewing, Asagao (morning glory), Tsubaki (camellia) and Yamazakura (wild cherry blossom) lights made from Japanese kozo paper, bamboo and linen fiber will be displayed in three locations in the Garden.
DANCE
Kaoru Okumura
Kaoru Okumura is a Japanese Butoh performer based in Seattle, US. A fan of Butoh since the 1970s, Kaoru studied Butoh in 1993 at Asbestos-Kan in Tokyo with Akiko Motofuji, the wife of one Butoh’s originators, Tatsumi Hijikata. This is where Kaoru first performed. She started Butoh activities in Seattle in 2008. Since then, she has enjoyed performing with Danse Perdue, KOGUT Butoh, and others, where she experiences how a body bridges the soul and the world. Recently she is focusing on solo work, periodically premiering new pieces at various venues. Kaoru had more than 20 performances in 2016, including Seattle International Dance Festival, and 9E2 Seattle in collaboration with Google Deep Dream, which was also supported by Google AMI (Artists & Machine Intelligence).
Her unique background balances computer technology and the arts. She has a Master of Science degree in mathematical logics and a career as researcher, developer, and program manager in computer companies with a specialty in natural languages analysis. She also enjoys contributing to the Butoh community as a photographer, and video artist.
MUSIC
Mirei Zaborac of Japanese Koto Club
Mirei Zaborac moved from Japan to U.S. in 1989. Living in Kent, Washington.
She started to take koto lessons since 5 years old and learned under Yumiko Kawakami in Tokyo, Shukin Noda in Kyoto and Kuniko Takamura in Seattle.
She plays traditional koto music, modern songs and church songs.
She plays at local event, company events, schools, nursing homes, wedding receptions, memorial services, private parties and so on to share her passion.
Her favorite quote is “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart” - Helen Keller.
Haiku
Michael Dylan Welch
Michael Dylan Welch likes to be surprised by empathy and gratitude in haiku. He has been active with haiku for more than 40 years, and joined the Haiku Society of America in 1987. He founded his press, Press Here, in 1989, edited Woodnotes from 1989 to 1997, and Tundra from 1998 to 2001. He currently coedits First Frost and serves as haiku editor for Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine. Michael cofounded the Haiku North America conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996, and founded the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in 2008 and National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com) in 2010. Michael has won first place in the Henderson, Brady, Drevniok, and Tokutomi haiku contests, among others, and his poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of publications, translated into more than twenty languages. He served two terms as Redmond poet laureate, curates SoulFood Poetry Night, and is president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword. Michael has published 76 books, mostly haiku. His website, also devoted mostly to haiku, is www.graceguts.com.