Our book club has a BOOK SHELF!

Recommended Reading to Better Understand Japanese Gardens and Japan in General
Recommendations of Seattle Japanese Garden (SJG) Docents and Friends

Browse this list as you might a bookshelf in a friend’s home; the readings have been submitted by SJG docents and friends, for which, and whom, the SJG Reading Group facilitators are grateful! The list is in alphabetical order by title, although none of our bookshelves might actually be organized that way….   One asterisk (*) at the end of a listing means a reading was discussed by the SJG Reading Group, and two asterisks (**) mean it’s scheduled to be discussed in the future. Go and browse the shelf here!

After this post goes to archives you can still access the BOOK SHELF - it's now pinned on the left side of this blog, above the FILM BANK. Enjoy!

Hanami continues at UW quad: yoshino cherries  - 3/12/116
Is it just me, or the yoshinos are getting paler in color with each year?

The garden is open & sakura on the UW quad

SJG • 3/6/16 - Reverend Barrish of Tsubaki Shinto temple in front of the Garden's gate , blessing ceremony

by aleks

The SJG officially opened for 2016 season on March 6 and welcomes you for the reminder of the year, and the 2016 Cherry Blossom Viewing (sakura) on UW quad opened 2 days later, on March 8 with calligraphy, aka poetry and tea ceremony - the blossoms will be there for you for another 2 weeks or so.

SJG • 3/6/16 - Rev. Barrish inside the Garden, blessing the pond with offering of sake and rice

Only 3 years earlier those events were like 3 weeks apart (check this blog's  past entries)  - what can I say?  We had another warm winter in Seattle and the cherries are blooming almost immediately after, or nearly with  the ornamental plums - a traditional Japanese spring harbinger...

UW Quad yoshino cherries • 3/12/16

UW yoshino cherry blossoms - up close on the trunk

Welcome Rock Arrangement By Dick Yamasaki

Seattle Japanese Garden At Washington Park Arboretum
By Koichi Kobayashi

SJG •  “Welcome Rock Arrangement by Dick Yamasaki “ - photo by Koichi Kobayashi

SJG •  “Welcome Rock Arrangement by Dick Yamasaki “ - photo by Koichi Kobayashi

This is a story about a set of rock installment.

I have been trying to determine who is responsible for placing an impressive set of rock you can see on your left hand side of pathway right after entering current south gate at the Seattle Japanese Garden at Washington Park Arboretum. It is widely known that most of rock installation in this garden was executed by Yamasaki/Yorozu team and supervised by Juki Iida during 1959-1960 construction period.  But this set of rock is very powerful and is not a typical rock set as seen in other gardens produced by Juki Iida and other parts of this garden.

 Area between the current entrance gate to WPA vintage stone bridge was not completed by end of initial construction and there was no entrance at the south end of the garden.  I verified this by examining original construction drawing and as built drawing produced by Nobumasa Kitamura of Tokyo Metropolitan Parks Department.  It has been documented that completion of this area was supervised by Dick Yamasaki who was also responsible for installing rock retaining wall on the north end of lake. I speculated that Dick Yamasaki installed this set of rocks.

In a strange encountering recently with Larry Hettick who is married to Suzie, who is related to Fumi Yamasaki, wife of Dick Yamasaki, Larry was told by Dick Yamasaki that Dick Yamasaki himself installed this rock arrangement.  That cleared my speculation over a long time.  Now I would like to propose to name this rock arrangement as “Welcome Rock Arrangement by Dick Yamasaki “.

For more (supporting documents for this article) go here.