Japanese Friendship Garden Visit

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Zig-zag Bridge

We recently spent an afternoon in the Japanese Friendship Garden near downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It’s a quiet green refuge in a busy, beige city that often surpasses 120ºF in the summer. Here’s a description of the garden from their web site:

The Japanese Friendship Garden, named Rohoen (鷺鳳園), is a joint project of the City of Phoenix and our Sister City Himeji, Japan. Himeji Mayor, Matsuji Totani proposed the garden in 1987 to cement the bonds of friendship between Japan and the United States and particularly between the peoples of Himeji and Phoenix.

The teahouse and surrounding tea garden were completed in November 1996, the 20th anniversary of our Sister City relationship. The project features a stroll garden, tea garden, and a dry garden.

To fully enjoy the garden we strolled slowly, listened to the birds and babbling books, and touched the leaves and smelled the flowers to fully entertain our senses. There is an interactive map provided for smartphones, and it provided some deeper insights and information that enriched our experience. But surely electronic devices have most to gain from the Garden, and not the other way around. Wouldn’t it be lovely if devices learned to support quiet contemplation and helped clear our minds rather than cluttering them? It’s something I’m looking to explore in the future.

Teahouse Garden

In the photos below, look for nature shaped in collaboration with human hands, rich contextual design, asymmetries, peaceful spaces and even a tea house whose current Master is Dr. Sen Soshitsu, the former tea master of the Urasenke School of Tea in Japan. He is a 15th generation descendant of Sen no Rikyū (1521-1591), who is widely regarded as the first and most important Japanese tea master. Finding this gem in the Arizona desert reminds us of Sen no Rikyū’s commitment to simple experiences in understated spaces over 400 years ago. We’ll be back someday soon for tea.