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Jackson Park's Osaka Japanese GardenThis page brought to you by Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference Parks Committee and HPKCC's website, www.hydepark.org, with and on behalf of the Jackson Park Advisory Council. Join HPKCC! Join JPAC! Contact the HPKCC Parks Committee Chair. Note, this site has no connection to bookings etc. |
Page
contents. Map
and how to get to the Garden
Jackson Park/JPAC home. Historic
Jackson Park. Doug Anderson's Lost
Wooded Island
Photo Gallery. Other
photo sources. Trish
Morse's Osaka Virtual Tour
New
waterfall (c. 12 foot drop) and waterfall-fed pools by moon bridge. Unfortunately,
the flow is since much reduced due to zebra mussel clogging. Right as the moon
bridge etc were in 2000. Photos by George Rumsey
Top
This website has no association with hosting of weddings or other special events at the Garden, Wooded Island, or elsewhere in the Park, including the popular 63rd Bathing Pavilion. Contact Ann Regan at Chicago Park District. Ann.Regan@chicagoparkdistrict.com, 312 742-PLAY. The garden in its location, topography, set up, and distant parking presents many difficulties to large events.
For a free tour, join Doug Anderson's Wooded Island Bird Tours, every Wednesday at 7 am, Saturday at 8 am. Meet at the Darrow Bridge. 773 493-7058.
The Garden is maintained by the Chicago Park District, Lakefront Region (William Tillis at Jackson Park Fieldhouse, 6401 S. Stony Island, 60637), (Lakefront Director Alonzo Williams, 541 N. Fairbanks Ct., 7, Ernest Alverado trades and landscape 312 742-PLAY), the Park District Department of Natural Resources (and various other divisions. For security issues call the Chicago Police then Park District Police (ask for Ernest Griffin or Lorenzo Chew, Kevin Ryan districtwide director) and the fieldhouse and 911.
Access is now completely open. But remember the Darrow and Wooded Island bridges are not be crossed by automobile, and Wooded Island is closed to private vehicular traffic.
The waterfall's effectiveness has been weakened by the clogging of its pump, possibly by zebra mussels. Neither JPAC nor Osaka volunteers have been able to put this high on the park district's radar, although the pump itself may be replaced in 2005. Regular cleaning will be necessary to maintain this pump, which also helps with Lagoon water quality.
The Garden's designer has been in touch with the Park District Department of Planning concerning further enhancements.
Visit Osaka Garden (www.osakagarden.org website, which is good and quite inclusive. although inactive). Other Osaka Garden sites: Museum of Science and Industry page with photos, (one) and (two) , by photographer and JPAC member David Solzman, City of Chicago/Department of Cultural Affairs/Sister Cities, (head Robert Karr). See that of the international Japanese Gardens organization. More fine pictures, including from the 2002 Festival, are in the website of Mary Rose Shaughnessy
Back to Jackson Park Home Page, Back to Jackson Park Hot Topics, To Lagoons and Restoration Project
To Osaka Garden Photo Gallery: Summer2002, Reconstruction Spring and Summer 2002. See more pics in the site of Mary Rose Shaughnessy, particularly those of the 2002 Osaka Garden Festival!
Osaka Garden started with scraping and building up and outward the natural oak savannah sandbar (then a peninsula) to be known as Wooded Island for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and constructing on what was now become an Island (with a bridge connection) a Ho-o-den (Phoenix Temple) for the government of Japan as its pavilion for the Exposition. This temple was not located near the present garden and tea house, but in the southwest corner of Wooded Island, which became the center of a living village of Japanese craftsmen, performers, representatives et al. amidst some of the oldest giant burr oaks in the Chicago area. This site was also a hunters' camp at some point.
Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was at first reluctant to accept the offer by the Japanese government to build a formal garden and temple with Ho-o-den (at its own expense) because he conceived the island as a rustic resting spot from the bustle of the Fair. But the offer was too good for Fair architect/manager Daniel Burnham to resist. The pavilion and temple in fact blended harmoniously with nature in a way the rest of the Fair buildings clearly did not and was highly popular. It raises the fascinating and eternal interplay and see-saw between a park as passive and pristine vs active and ever changing. It also helped introduce Americans to Japanese culture, religion, arts, and architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was but one of several architects and artists influenced by the Phoenix Pavilion, but the impact on him was arguably transformational (and influenced his decorative arts also).
Formerly the local Frank Lloyd Wright and architectural organizations, including Wright Plus, and Chicago Architecture Foundation have co-sponsored annual Osaka Garden Festivals. The latter gives tours of the tours the World's Columbian Exposition footprint that includes Osaka Garden ($10 to nonmembers). Four times a year the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs gives similar tours by bus from the Chicago Cultural Center, 78. W. Randolph.
The 1893 Ho-o-Den (Phoenix Temple) consisted of three structures joined by covered walkway to form the shape of the phoenix bird. The beams and joinery were part of the beauty and ornament. Inside were artifacts and treasures from three periods of Japanese history-scrolls, vases, decorative screens, writing materials, and musical instruments. The elements were designed and crafted in Japan and brought over by steamer and train, along with carpenters, stone workers and gardeners. The construction itself was an activity that drew many visitors. A reporter wrote, "They move about serenely as if it were a pleasure to work."
After the Fair, the Ho-o-den Pavilion remained after most of the rest of the Fair perished and Olmsted, then his sons redesigned the island, lagoons, and park. Today, one special lantern, placed now south of the current tea house, is probably the only original furnishing that remains--although some say this was made later.
In 1933/4, Chicago, with help from the government of Japan, constructed a traditional Nippon Tea House at the Century of Progress World's Fair on Chicago's near /mid-south lakefront and also created a garden on Wooded Island's northeast side and recreated in spirit the Ho-o-den in a renovated north end of the Island. The actual site extended across what is now the lawn that forms a road loop west of the present garden. More Nippon Tea House material was brought to the site after Century of Progress closed. These were done to show appreciation for this special place and Chicago's gratitude to Japan 40 years after the previous fair. The garden on Wooded Island consisted as today of a double-pond with islands a cascading waterfall, stone walkway, flowering cherry trees, iris, lily pads, a moon bridge, carp pools, inlaid step stone paths, rock formations, and beautifully carved stone lanterns. The Torii Gate and the Nippon Tea House from the Century of Progress was moved in 1935 to Wooded Island, near the Ho-o-den, and a traditional Japanese Garden was designed by George Shimoda and built thanks again to Japan. (Note that the shore was considerably changed and shortened by the WPA projects of the 1930s.)
The structures burned or were burned progressively starting right after start of the war between the U.S. and Japan and culminating in a major conflagration started by two boys in 1946. Gradually, the site and Wooded Island became neglected and unsafe, even an attractant for unsavory elements and muggers. Yet, in its unkempt state it helped make Wooded Island one of the glories of the Lake Michigan Migratory Bird Flyway--the Island becoming far more densely vegetated than it had been in the 1930s, and in 1977 it became part of the Paul H. Douglas Nature Sanctuary--see the plaque inset in an ancient (granitic rhyolite?) rock by the main gate. Catbirds, robins, cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and yellow warblers make it home.
A rebirth was sparked by two events in 1973. Chicago strengthened its Sister City relationship with the city of Osaka, Japan. (The relationship really went back to 1956.) One of the goals of the Sister Cities program became to revive the Japanese Garden in Jackson Park. In that year also, 5th Ward Alderman Leon Despres persuaded Douglas C. Anderson to begin his now renowned bird walks on the Island and surrounding natural area in Jackson Park, in part to reclaim them for birders and the communities of Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore. Gradually, thanks in good measure to Doug and to picnics/People in the Park events held by the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and Open Lands, citizens and birders returned, rediscovered Osaka Garden, and demanded its restoration. Also, by 1974, Jackson Park had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. During that decade, the Park Distinct added new landscaping, stabilized the shoreline and either restored or reconstructed most of the original features.
In 1977, Anderson persuaded officials to name the whole Island after his mentor, environmental and parks advocate (Indiana Dunes) Senator Paul H. Douglas, whose ashes Anderson scattered at the base of a Southern Catalpa, then surrounded by flowers. Efforts to restore the garden and a rebuild a simplified tea house reached fruition between 1981 and 1983, when the Garden was completely restored and rededicated (The garden was reopened in 1981.) Featured were flowering trees, evergreens, shrubs and flowers. Other features included a pavilion, new moon bridge, rock waterfall, two granite symbolic boat docks, lanterns, landscaping. George Cooley, formerly a JPAC officer and Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference officer, shepherded planning and secured grants including federal funds for the Garden restoration. Japanese experts were brought in, including designer Kaneji Domoto. Many area groups and individuals have since tended the special palette of plants and trees, including rare pines, 4 red maples, and many plants in the propitious color red, including Jewelweed and Quince.
Additional important dates for evolution and growth of the garden complex (started in 1991 with $100,000 in landscaping and preliminary shore protection--although the latter was insufficient to last) were 1992-3, when the 20th anniversary of the Sister City relationship was celebrated and the Garden renamed Osaka Japanese Garden (1993), and 1994-5, when such additions as a new Torii traditional formal gate (Kobayashi & Associates of Seattle- but see box below) and fence, were dedicated, funded by the City of Osaka at $250,000, part of a total $400,000 gift, and constructed entirely without nails and by hand using tongue and groove methods. Gate dedication 1995. The garden gradually became an international mecca, despite poor directional signage to it. It is a prime site for viewing local and migratory birds. It also presents an interesting set of microclimates and habitats as well as a contrast to the more rustic habitats of the rest of the Island. The garden did suffer from shore erosion, weak pool circulation due to the waterfall being too small, beaver damage at the end of the century, and frequent vandalism and abuse. Fortunately, the Tea House was built of naturally fire-resistant Douglas pine and its graffiti painted over quickly.
| I enjoyed
seeing your webpage. I wanted to also add that the gate was actually built
by John Okumura's company, at that time it was Custom Cabinet Corporation.
It was interesting to go to the site before it was built and to see the
construction of it. My dad's company was always in Chicago, so the gate
was actually made in Chicago. He worked with Kobayashi-san on this project.
Mary |
In 2002 the garden was redesigned and reconstructed, with a master plan (only one-third realized at that time). It was hoped the new designed more resistant to the above-mentioned problems caused in part by only partial execution of designs. Lost and not yet fully restored is the great variety of flowers and perennials. Most conclude it is lovely. Some of the visual and environmental intent are lost due do waterfall pump problems. See Principles of a Japanese Hill Garden, below. More on restoration below.
The Garden's theme, from 1893 to the present, is peace--between humans and nature, within people, with the spiritual realm, and between peoples. These themes are dear to the people of Osaka, Chicago, and the park's neighboring communities. Long may this garden continue. As the Osaka Garden Committee of Sister Cities International wrote, "A garden develops over time....it is lasting. The same is true of the relationships between people, nations and cultures. Every gardener knows that quiet observation and attention to nature facilitate the success of a garden. Likewise, peace and understanding facilitate our future."
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Osaka Garden Festival (none currently- could be revived in 2007. Under the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs-Sister Cities)In the late 1990's, an annual Osaka Garden Festival was organized by Robert Karr and associates, known and organized today as Friends of Osaka Garden, and other many associates from several organizations, including Japanese-American arts, cultural, religious, restaurateur, and martial arts groups, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Sister , Int'l, Chicago Park District, and (once?) Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio with the Chicago Architecture Foundation and more recently commercial sponsors as well. The arts, music, ceremonial and martial arts performances, and food have been spectacular. It's held the second weekend of September. Go to the Osaka Garden site as the time approaches to see the complete schedule. Photo courtesy of Mary Rose Shaughnessy 2002. Visit her Osaka Garden page at her website. |
The principle and components of a Japanese hillside strolling garden (kyuushiki) is that you should not have a view of the whole from any one perspective but be refreshed and have your senses stimulated as you come around each twisting, looping turn and move past masking plants and trees. Important features include a turtle island in the pool, a moon bridge and walk over water, lanterns and statuary, and a waterfall. It brings together the components of nature: rock, water, hill/mountain, plant. Man-made elements are also included, usually cut-stone lanterns, a water basin, moon bridge and pavilion with Iromaya style roof--but man's domination is the opposite of what is intended. It establishes harmony through shakkei (borrowed scenery), in which views of neighboring trees and distant vistas are incorporated into the garden scene and experience. In fact, it is compressed landscape. All, including the plants, have symbolic references and spiritual effects. For example, by our taking a curved or zigzag path over water, the evil spirits that wear us down to fall away into the water, because they are said to travel only in straight lines; in addition, you are reminded to be ever agile and observant in life. (Part of this effect over water was lost by reconfiguration in 2002--you can't have people hopping and zigzagging over water any more, and of course there is an alternative path for the disabled now.)
The design was skillfully carried out by experts highly knowledgeable of such associations and effects. This type of garden emerged during the Edo Period between 1615 and 1867.
Unfortunately, vandalism sometimes plagued the Garden, to the point that fencing the whole Island was considered in the late 1990's. The sheet shoring along the shore of the interior pool and the East Lagoon was insufficient to guard against lagoon level fluctuations. The waterfall size and pump were not sufficient to keep the water fresh. Shore plantings were not kept up. Stopgap restorations ensued, including that of 1995. Some of the pines suffered infections.
The gate of the garden (ours in 1995- see above) proclaims the size and status of the garden--this one would be on the large, grand end of the spectrum.
The pavilion, simplified as it is, is both a classic Noh theater stage and an arbor for meditation, contemplation, rest, and observation--or a tea ceremony.
Stone water basin or laver, south of the pavilion, is for physical and spiritual/symbolic cleansing. The tsuku-bai is the kind positioned low on the ground along the path of stepping stones to a tea house and reflects the larger basin in front of a temple or shrine.
Turtle Island is the isle of happiness. Humans cannot, must not try to, walk on it. It cannot but be viewed from afar, like the isle of immortals off the coast of China.
Moon Bridge. Bridges in Japanese gardens are supposed to be made only of natural materials (so imagine). It's not an accident that a link between this world and paradise is of natural materials. The high arch shows how difficult passage to the other world is--but it's a path nonetheless... Metal ornaments on rails of the old bridge (will have to check on the current) are called gyoboshi, "sacred gem."
Rocks and boulders are the bones of the earth. (See below on just how old our "bones" are, a refinement modern geological science and historical geography of the Midwest have allowed.) The rocks and stones are always picked and placed first in planning and building the garden. Their placement is as critical as the path, contour and plants in determining the desired views. Stones are traditionally chosen for texture, color, and form and given names--philosophical, religious, or poetic as inspired by the particular shape.
Kasuga Lantern from the 1893 World's Fair located north-northeast of the pavilion near the south gate. With pagoda-shaped top, it took its name from the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan. Note the stag or deer panel. These lanterns are unique in taking one four traditional symbols, stag, doe, sun, moon and are based on those used in temple compound offerings.
Re designer Sadafumiu Uchiyama and previous designers placed rocks in the garden that have special meanings in a Japanese Garden, but also reflect the geologic ages of rocks in or brought by man and glacier to Chicago. Outside the Garden is a large stone with an identifying plaque. The stone is a glacial erratic, brought down by a glacier in the ice age from Canada, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, or the Green Bay area. It is of rhyolite, a granite-like but extruded igneous rock (quartz-rich- 10%+, felsic, usually light-colored and fine-grained) from the time of joining of the Midwest to Canada, 1.8-2.1 billion years ago. One approaches the garden on a gravel path lined with igneous granite curb-blocks, crosses a threshold (under the Torii gate) of Silurian Age dolostone c. 420 million years old when a vast coral reef formed in a shallow tropical sea maybe where Brazil is now.
One continues through the Garden on paths of mixed gravel and purple-red "wasted granite" weathered out of bedrock at Wisconsin quarries. The path is curbed with blocks of quartzite, anciently metamophosized from sandstone under great pressure until the grains fused--if from the Bariboo Wisconsin area then 2 billion years old, from when our part of the continent plowed into and joined onto the Canadian craton.
At the Moon Bridge and lower pond are large, irregular blocks, moonstones, composed of gneiss, formed in the Morton, Minnesota area in a metamorphic event 3.6 billion years ago. The parent formation is the oldest rock at surface in what is now the United States. To the left is a glacial erratic that has an inclusion: another kind of rock fell into the cooling melt and was altered but not consumed.
Further on is a greenstone (metamophosized basalt) boulder from a volcanic event 2.6 billion years ago.
The wonderful stone lanterns are of Barre, Vermont granite, a popular stone throughout the States. The stone is a fine gray with flecks of black, pink, and glittering mica. This stone formed during continental collisions and separations of the past few hundred million years.
2002 Restoration in conjunction with the Lagoon Restoration Project
It was recognized that at least shore stabilization and replanting should be undertaken as part of the ambitious lagoon restoration project. Other funds suddenly became available in early 2002, including from Japan. However, the migratory bird season arrived before a great Japanese Garden expert and designer of Japanese gardens worldwide, Sadafumiu Uchiyama, could come from Oregon and personally oversee the engineering and craftsmen's work. By that time, it was understood that a complete rebuilding of the lower reaches of the Garden was necessary, and both this and the specialist work took much more time than expected, barring the Garden to birders and viewers and users of the Garden. Yet, funds were not sufficient to do all the work thought desirable. (The designer estimates a third and is interested in working on execution of more if funds can be found.)
The sudden onset of this project with minimal communication to JPAC or Doug Anderson and other tour leaders caused great inconvenience, for which the Park District and project managers apologized. In fact, lack of information on site may have encouraged several late-night break-ins and vandalism which occurred. The garden was reopened by the second week in August. At the August 12 JPAC meeting, members proclaimed the results to be most beautiful. It is hoped that the new protections to the shore, new waterfall and pool, and newly stabilized lagoon levels should prevent previous recurrent problems.
The project included draining and lining the interior pool, giving it sheet steel edge protection, enlarging and repositioning the waterfall, new access to the moon bridge, and new lagoon shore planting at the newly stabilized lagoon water level. The new waterfall has five times the volume of the former and now adds the sonic effect which is part of a traditional garden. There was little change in the main garden vegetation template. Overseeing much of the work were noted Japanese bonsai experts led by Mr. Uchiyama from Oregon. The contractor was Clauss Brothers.
Thought will be given to further upgrades, including new planting--for example, special irises in the mudflat end of the pool have been installed. There will be more "partnership opportunities." A support group for the Garden, Friends of Osaka Garden, was formed but seems to be hiatus at the moment.You may also visit the Osaka Volunteers site, www.Osakagarden.org.
Another good site is that of JPAC member David Solzman, parked in the site of Museum of Science and Industry, including a picture gallery See more pics in the site of JPAC and HPKCC member Mary Rose Shaughnessy. The City of Chicago's site (look for Department of Cultural Affairs--Sister Cities) and the Japanese Gardens organization have additional material.
Anderson Gardens in Rockford, Illinois (well worth the trip)
Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois north of Chicago
Japanese Gardens at Holy Mountain Trading, San Francisco, California
Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon (Mr. Uchiyama's locale) (this website may have to be navigated, it is rather complex)
Morikama Museum and Japanese Gardens, Del Ray Florida (site needs navigation)
Seiwa-en, St. Louis, Missouri.
Sujir Japanese
Garden in Delaware Park, Buffalo,
New York (site may need navigation)
See also the Roth Journal of Japanese Gardening.
