Landscape Information
Located at the southern end of the Washington Park Arboretum, this three-and-a-half-acre garden is nestled between a steep hillside and Lake Washington Boulevard. The site was designed in 1959 by a seven-person Japanese team led by landscape architects Kiyoshi Inoshita and Juki Iida. The latter supervised construction of the garden, which opened in 1960.
Typical of a Japanese stroll garden, the site features a central pond encircled by a curvilinear path, intended to purposefully choreograph concealed and revealed views. The elongated, irregularly shaped pond is crossed by low bridges and is marked by modest islands. The biomorphic-shaped water feature is edged by narrow sloping lawns interspersed with stone lanterns, flowering shrubs and specimen trees, including pine, fir, and yew. The western bank features a wooden platform and the northern includes a wisteria draped arbor that overlooks a cut-stone dock and seven-foot stone retaining wall.
Northwest of the pond, gently rolling hillsides are planted with flowering cherry, crabapple, and plum trees that lead to a gentle rise. Employing the technique of “borrowed scenery” (shakkei), visitors are afforded views of the arboretum beyond. Occupying a knoll southwest of the pond, a tea garden (roji) is enclosed by a hedge of Japanese andromeda, boxwood, cedar, and evergreen huckleberry. A secondary path leads south, traversing a steep slope designed by Iida to evoke a Japanese mountain. Planted with pine, camellias, bamboo and moss, the grove is animated by a stream that incorporates granite stones transported from Bandera Mountain west of the city. The garden includes hundreds of such stones, selected and placed by Iida.
Originally accessed from the east, the garden is presently entered from the south via an entrance plaza designed in 2009 by landscape architects Nakano Associates (now MIG | Nakano Associates) and Hoshide Wanzer Architects.
The garden was designated a Seattle Landmark in 2008.
