"In a Japanese Garden"
By Lafcadio Hearn

"No effort to create an impossible or pure ideal landscape is made in the Japanese Garden.  Its artistic purpose is to copy faithfully the veritable landscape, and to convey the real impression that a real landscape communicates.  It is therefore at once a picture and a poem; perhaps even more a poem than a picture.  For as nature's scenery, in its varying aspects, affects us with sensations of joy or solemnity, of grimness or of sweetness, of force or of peace, so must the true reflection of it in the labor of the landscape gardener create not merely an impression of beauty, but a mood in the soul."

Excerpted from:
The Atlantic Monthly
Volume 70, Issue 417
July 1892

 

 

Shimane Educators Visit New Orleans

While in New Orleans on an exchange program, 14 educators from Matsue and the surrounding area, and their local hosts, visited the Yakumo Nihon Teien.  Dr. Strong led a group of about thirty brave souls on a guided tour of the garden.  This writer can vouch for the fact that not even the frigid January winds of New Orleans can hold back our President's enthusiasm for the garden.  With the aid of landscape architect Robin Tanner, Dr. Strong treated the group to a very thorough, and chilly, viewing of our recent progress.

Board members then welcomed the group into the Botanical Garden's Education Building for a more traditional taste of New Orleans hospitality.  Festivities included Jambalaya, crawfish pasta, drinks, mounds of hot boiled crawfish, and Dr. Strong's personal rendition of Oysters Rockefeller.  This was followed up by songs, laughter, and more gift exchanges than can be counted.

The Board would like to thank everyone involved for giving us the  opportunity to build even more friendships with our Matsue partners.