Japanese Gardens At the Huntington
The Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Museum and Library in Pasadena, CA are really beautiful and create a peacefulness when strolling through them. These gardens make up only a very small portion of the total grounds at the Huntington, being only one a several other enormous gardens. I wrote a post on the succulent and cactus gardens and on the Chinese Gardens.
There is some history that took place back in 1912 when these gardens were first imagined by Mr Huntington. He had asked his gardener to develop a Japanese garden for him. The gardener knew of a Japanese garden already in Pasadena that was not doing well commercially. A deal was struck and the entire gardens, Japanese plants, Bonsai, special pine trees, ornaments and even a Japanese House was moved to the Huntington grounds. Nine acres was set aside to create the new gardens and it took over six months to complete the transfer. The Japanese House is still there and used for Ikebana ( the art of Japanese flower arranging) classes and demonstrations.
More was added to the grounds in later years by a Japanese craftsman who created the Moon Bridge seen in my first photo and the Gong Tower shown below.
As of April this year, this garden is now closed for a complete historical renovation of the Japanese house with major modifications and expansion to the entire landscape, hardscape and water features. This is in preparation for the centennial celebration to be held there next year, 2012. One of the key new elements that will be added will be an authentic ceremonial tea house that was donated to the Huntington by the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. The tea house was built in Kyoto Japan in the 1960 and erected at the Temple.
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