In today’s ultra-convenient society, Japanese gardens, which sometimes are fostered over a period of several centuries, must seem quite inefficient. We believe, however, that it is precisely in our present age that garden fostering techniques may hold the value we need to help shape a better society.

When raising a Japanese garden, actual garden creation consists of 40%, whereas daily cultivation or, as I like to call it, garden fostering makes up 60%. To create a garden requires a large amount of capital both in terms of personnel and money, and this makes a garden’ s completion all the more joyous an occasion. What is important, however, is the fostering of the garden that occurs after it is first completed. This means not simply pruning overgrown branches, but engaging in ceaseless activity to make use of the garden as an expression of space; it means sensitively picking up on the property owner’s ideas and the garden’s distinctive character as well as accepting and understanding the natural landscape. In addition, I believe it is also necessary not only to tend to the garden directly, but to communicate its appeal in easy to understand terms and thereby to nurture a culture of cherishing gardens. It is thanks to this act of cultivation that Japanese gardens are able to give us a feeling of peace of mind and enrichment that all people can share; something we can hardly gain amid our competitive daily lives.

Approximately 1,200 years ago, it was written in the Sakuteiki (Records of Garden Making) that man-made gardens can never exceed the beauty of nature. This means that the techniques that we human beings are capable of are never superior to nature’s design, and we must therefore revere nature and learn from it. As we approach the daily work of nurturing gardens in Kyoto, Japan and throughout the world, it is this message from our forebears that we wish to keep in our hearts.

Ueyakato Landscape Co., Ltd. President Tomoki Kato
&nsbp;

[Special Interview] Dr. Kendall Brown (North America Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) Board President)x Tomoki Kato “The 21st Century’s Classic Landscape is a Japanese Garden” (January, 2015)

[Special Interview] Stephen D. Bloom (CEO of the Portland Japanese Garden) x Tomoki Kato x Yamaguchi “Engagement That Creates a Harmonious Relationship Between People and Garden” (October, 2015)