"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

Zen-Noh UNICO America Contribution

Consul General of Japan Masaru Sakato hosted a formal presentation ceremony at his official residence to commemorate a donation from Zen-Noh UNICO America Corp.  Mr. Yasufumi Akimoto publicly announced the the generous contribution, which was gratefully received by the JGSNO President, Dr. Jack P. Strong.  The celebration was joined by most of the JGSNO board, along with other supporters such as Ms. Teruko von Bargen of the Japan Club.