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Dawes: Japanese Aesthetic
We made a visit to Dawes Arboretum, yesterday. I took so many pictures that I will have to post in installments. This first composite highlights an essential part of the experience at Dawes: the Japanese garden and the lovely bonsai examples to be seen in the visitor center. This is a great garden to see if visiting Central Ohio.
The Japanese garden is a real one, as opposed to a garden reminiscent with only the flavor of a Japanese garden. A true Japanese garden is designed according to principles. This is a stroll garden, done in the hill and pond -Chisen-Kaiyu-skiki- style. It was designed by a master of the art, Dr. Makoto Nakamura, a lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Kyoto, Japan, while he was visiting here.
As you enter there is a zen garden of mown grass, gravel and large rocks, which represent a river flowing down a mountain side … then you meander into the large pond with increasing details of the Japanese garden. We stopped at the tea house area and I had the kids sketch some things and take a few pictures so that they might take time to observe. We watched some large turtles sun themselves on the far end of the grassy embankment of the pond.
An American arborvitae as bonsai, from 1971.
View of pond and island and path out of the garden.
Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio.
my grandmother built a true japanese garden down by a little lake on their
old farm. it had a bamboo fence and a red gate with lions. there were beautiful local rocks standing “natural sculpture”.also a bamboo teahouse, and stone basin with dipper.
the stone lanterns and flat round
stones, and a red lacquer arching bridge were imported from japan. it was an amazing and beautiful place. all the more so because she created it. garden clube used to come for tours, and i still have a set of photos that she had done for some magazine….i still have the big stone “moon”lantern out there beside the big oak tree.