From AARP: Portland Japanese Garden Serene Place to Visit
AARP recently recommended Portland Japanese Garden among a select group of American gardens that provide serenity to their visitors.| Portland Japanese Garden
HGTV named Portland Japanese Garden the most beautiful garden in Oregon. The post From HGTV: Portland Japanese Garden the Most Beautiful Garden in Oregon appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
In August, retired U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, his wife Ruth Harkin, former county attorney and author, and his sister-in-law Jean Harkin, also an author, visited Portland Japanese Garden for a tour of the landscape and to reconnect with Aki Nakanishi, Director of the Japan Institute and Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education. The post Senator Tom Harkin Visits Portland Japanese Garden appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
AARP recently recommended Portland Japanese Garden among a select group of American gardens that provide serenity to their visitors.| Portland Japanese Garden
Visit Portland Japanese Garden, proclaimed to be the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan and one of Oregon's most beloved spaces.| Portland Japanese Garden
Tanabata, the Star Festival, is one of five seasonal festivals that has been celebrated in Japan since the eighth century. Each summer in Japan, people prepare for the festival by writing their wishes on narrow strips of paper called tanzaku and hanging them with other origami paper ornaments on bamboo branches displayed at the entrance to their ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Experience a range of nature-inspired artwork as diverse as the ecology of the Pacific Northwest itself! Primarily used for elaborate patterns on kimono and yukata, katazome is a method of using exquisitely cut paper stencils and resist paste to dye fabrics. Today, katazome-created designs can be stand-alone art pieces, or are often found on noren ...| Portland Japanese Garden
For more than a decade, Behind the Shoji has been one of Portland Japanese Garden’s most anticipated summer traditions. An annual show and sale of Japanese and Japanese-inspired wares, visitors can purchase from a variety of curated items that, even with a trip to Japan, might be difficult to come across. This year we’re excited to be showcasing ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Salt & Straw co-founder Tyler Malek told Forbes that Portland Japanese Garden is a place he always brings family when visiting Portland.| Portland Japanese Garden
Kodomo no Hi, also called Children’s Day, is commemorated each year in Japan on May 5th to celebrate the growth and good fortune of children. Portland Japanese Garden’s celebration of the festival will feature a range of family-friendly activities.| Portland Japanese Garden
Because of the careful and diligent maintenance of its grounds by generations of gardeners, facilities technicians, volunteers, and more, Portland Japanese Garden appears as though it has been perched atop the West Hills for as long as Washington Park has existed. It may be surprising to know that the site it sits on today was once the old location of the Portland Zoo, now known as the Oregon Zoo.| Portland Japanese Garden
The Japanese have long praised koi (carp) as “the king of river fish.” In Japanese, koi is a homonym for another word that means "affection" or "love"; koi are therefore symbols of love and friendship in Japan.| Portland Japanese Garden
Garden Updates Culture, Art, & Education| Portland Japanese Garden
The largest garden, the Strolling Pond Garden consists of Upper and Lower Ponds connected by a flowing stream and features the iconic Moon Bridge.| Portland Japanese Garden
NW Kids Magazine, a resource guide to family-friendly activities in Portland, recommended Portland Japanese Garden as an outing for new parents.| Portland Japanese Garden
In the News| Portland Japanese Garden
We’re putting a Portland Japanese Garden twist on a recent New York Times article that introduced some fun and novel ways to get yourself walking. The post How to Go For a Walk in Portland Japanese Garden appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
KPTV, Portland's local FOX affiliate, came by the Garden to feature the return of our annual summer marketplace, Behind the Shoji. The post From KPTV: Behind the Shoji Returns to Portland Japanese Garden appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
By Will Lerner, Communications Manager for Portland Japanese Garden & Japan Institute When guests arrive to the Cultural Village of Portland Japanese Garden, the site many head to first is the Ellie M. Hill Bonsai Terrace. Here in this dedicated space, they’re able to see stellar and award-winning bonsai (literally, “tree-in-a-tray”). Those who aren’t done ... The post A Generational Artform: Learn More About Bonsai at Portland Japanese Garden appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Joining the Phoenix Legacy Society is an incredibly generous and thoughtful way to honor the Garden and help ensure it remains able to pursue its mission of Inspiring Harmony and Peace for generations to come. We recently sat down with two members of the Society, Jacquie Siewert-Schade and W. Curtis Schade, about why they decided to make this meaningful gesture. The post Phoenix Legacy Society Spotlight: Jacquie Siewert-Schade and W. Curtis Schade appeared first on Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Note: This letter first appeared in the summer 2025 issue of The Garden Path, the quarterly member magazine of Portland Japanese Garden. Members of the Garden are mailed copies. Information on how to become a member can be found here. Dear Members, Summer is here! A season for reconnecting with friends, reuniting with family, or lingering a ...| Portland Japanese Garden
The Japanese Garden Training Center teaches the traditional skills and techniques for creating and fostering Japanese gardens.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn more about the health benefits that are associated with forest bathing, the practice of being mindful in nature.| Portland Japanese Garden
Lisa Christy serves as Executive Director of Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Read about the best places to get a meal, snack, or beverage in Northwest Portland, a charming part of the city right next to Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Read about how House Beautiful named Portland Japanese Garden as one of the top ten botanical gardens in the U.S. to plan a road trip around.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn more about Behind the Shoji (6/21-9/1). Taking place in Portland Japanese Garden’s Pavilion Gallery, this marketplace is a beloved summer tradition.| Portland Japanese Garden
PDX Parent recently published a story sharing how visiting Portland Japanese Garden with your kids can be a fun and engaging family activity.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn about a forum that Portland Japanese Garden and Japan Institute held at The University of Tokyo in Japan.| Portland Japanese Garden
In honor of Father's Day, meet two Portland Japanese Garden cultural partners: Jeffrey and Andrew Robson, a father and son who present on bonsai & ikebana.| Portland Japanese Garden
Professor Takuma Tono of Tokyo Agricultural University was Portland Japanese Garden’s original designer. Retained by the organization in 1962, Professor Tono’s plan included four different garden styles (eventually five) laid out on 5.5 acres. This was quite a departure from gardens in Japan which typically follow one singular style. His intention was to represent different ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden will be tracking the state of its cherry blossoms with regular updates to this tracker to help visitors plan their spring visits!| Portland Japanese Garden
The five different garden styles of Portland Japanese Garden required driving to locations across Oregon to find the right materials.| Portland Japanese Garden
Hugo Torii of Portland Japanese Garden was knighted as part of the 2025 Honorary Knighting Ceremony and Rose Festival Queen’s Coronation.| Portland Japanese Garden
Curator Emeritus Sadafumi (Sada) Uchiyama is Curator Emeritus of Portland Japanese Garden. Before his retirement, Uchiyama served as Chief Curator from 2021 to 2023. Uchiyama had served as Garden Curator of Portland Japanese Garden from 2008 to 2021, during which time he helped to create and integrate the Cultural Crossing Expansion Project. Uchiyama also served ...| Portland Japanese Garden
The Tanabe Gallery is an intimate gallery space that features a broad range of smaller scale exhibitions year-round.| Portland Japanese Garden
Hugo Torii is the Garden Curator at Portland Japanese Garden, making him the 10th to take on this critical role since the Garden opened in 1967.| Portland Japanese Garden
In honor of koi, we here take a look them here in Portland Japanese Garden, their cultural significance in Japan, and answer questions about them.| Portland Japanese Garden
Catch up on some of the maintenance that has been going on at Portland Japanese Garden this spring.| Portland Japanese Garden
Spring is a time of magical transformation at Portland Japanese Garden. Warmer temperatures begin to populate our weather forecasts, flowers like azaleas and rhododendrons bloom, and the lush greens of our pines are joined by moegi-iro, a Japanese word for the fresh glowy energy of new leaf green. The soft beauty of spring can feel ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn more about a weeping cherry tree that was donated by a mother in Portland to Portland Japanese Garden in the 1960s.| Portland Japanese Garden
A Japanese tea garden is a place for quiet reflection on the beauty of nature and the art of living in harmony.| Portland Japanese Garden
Come join us for the Garden’s O-Shogatsu celebration! O-Shogatsu is a time of celebration for the start of a new year and hopes of happiness and prosperity to come. At Portland Japanese Garden, we are celebrating Japan’s most important holiday throughout the beginning of January with special events, demonstrations, and performances all culminating in the ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Experience the beauty of every season by becoming a member.| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is introducing the Sakura Society for emerging leaders in our community. The Sakura Society is a dynamic group of Portland Japanese Garden members ages 21-45 brought together by their passion for Japanese gardens, culture, and art. These members are a leading voice for cultural understanding, in pursuit of a more peaceful, sustainable world.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn about tips for parents on how to enjoy a visit to Portland Japanese Garden with kids.| Portland Japanese Garden
An important Japanese aesthetic principle underlying the Sand and Stone dry landscape garden is yohaku-no-bi, meaning “the beauty of blank space."| Portland Japanese Garden
The Natural Garden was created to encourage visitors to rest and reflect on the essence and brevity of life..| Portland Japanese Garden
The Cultural Village provides a place where visitors can immerse themselves in traditional Japanese arts through seasonal activities, performances, and demonstrations in the Tateuchi Courtyard.| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden was still nonetheless among the many local organizations and attractions that was impacted by the January 2024 ice storm.| Portland Japanese Garden
In this article originally published in Pacific Horticulture, we look at the characteristics that make Japanese gardens distinct from other styles.| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is excited to present its first new art exhibition of 2025 with Earthen Elegance: The Ceramic Art of Bizen, open from 2/8-6/9.| Portland Japanese Garden
Representative Mari Watanabe, Portland Japanese Garden Trustee, discusses making history by becoming Oregon's first Japanese American legislator.| Portland Japanese Garden
On Sunday, January 19, Mari Watanabe was sworn in to fill a vacant seat for Oregon House District 34 at Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
A letter from Lisa Christy, Executive Director of Portland Japanese Garden from the Winter 2025 issue of The Garden Path.| Portland Japanese Garden
Since the 1970s, Portland Japanese Garden has brought together the community to celebrate traditional cultural festivals. Mark your calendars now!| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is excited to introduce the Sakura Society, which welcomes emerging leaders to become patrons of the organization.| Portland Japanese Garden
In 2025, our exhibitions highlight a diverse range of cultural traditions and artforms, including a selection of ceramics and the art inherent in Japanese gardens.| Portland Japanese Garden
Read about the work Hugo Torii, Garden Curator, and his team of gardeners did to repair a water feature in Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Visitors to Portland Japanese Garden this winter will see additions to its grounds that haven’t been present since the 1980s: yukizuri.| Portland Japanese Garden
Here we present original writing crafted by Portland Japanese Garden in 2024, all imbued with the spirit our mission of Inspiring Harmony and Peace.| Portland Japanese Garden
2024 was a year filled with many exciting experiences and moments for Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
2024 saw several stories from the media that demonstrated the incredible landscape, programming, and people that bring Portland Japanese Garden to life.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn more about the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi through the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan.| Portland Japanese Garden
Japan Institute is the global cultural initiative of Portland Japanese Garden, created to facilitate and inspire conversations about peace, art, and the human relationship with the natural world. Peace Symposium – Cape Town 2023: Peacemaking at the Intersection of Culture, Art, and Nature will be held on Thursday, November 30th. This is a free, public symposium ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Explore how art fosters reconciliation and social integration, through a panel discussion featuring insights from three global visionary leaders—Maria Elisa Pinto-Garcia (Colombia), Lungi Morrison (South Africa), and Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie (Laos and Oregon). Through a close look at practical applications of the Japanese craft of repairing ceramics with gold, kintsugi (金継ぎ), and the Heart Maps methodology of using dialogue and drawings to positively shift perspectives and stereotypes,...| Portland Japanese Garden
× On Sale Dates Golden Crane: 9/12 Members: 9/19 Non-Members: 9/26 Sign up for our newsletter to get notified for when tickets go on sale! × Sign up for our newsletter to get notified when registration goes live! Indigenous Knowledge Expert and Granddaughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lungi Morrison to Present In this thought-provoking lecture ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Lungi Morrison, granddaughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Indigenous knowledge scholar discusses her partnership with Portland Japanese Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is thrilled to feature Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru in our Pavilion and Calvin and Mayho Tanabe Galleries this fall. Kintsugi is an ancient method of mending damaged ceramics using urushi (natural lacquer) dusted with powdered gold. This type of mending highlights the beauty of imperfections, rather than trying to hide them. This timely exhibition will explore universally resonant themes of healing through the artwork of kintsugi artist and master c...| Portland Japanese Garden
The Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association featured an article by Will Lerner about Portland Japanese Garden's Natural Garden.| Portland Japanese Garden
Learn more about Steve Bloom, who led Portland Japanese Garden as its CEO from 2005 to 2024.| Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden debuted its final art exhibition of 2024, Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru. Learn more about Fukumaru and her work.| Portland Japanese Garden
Stephen D. Bloom has been CEO of Portland Japanese Garden since 2005 and guided the establishment of Japan Institute in 2022, of which he is also CEO.| Portland Japanese Garden
Japan Institute is the global cultural initiative of Portland Japanese Garden, created to facilitate and inspire conversations about peace, art, and the human relationship with the natural world. Peace Symposium – Johannesburg 2023: Peacemaking at the Intersection of Culture, Art, and Nature will be held on Monday, December 4th. This is a free, public symposium exploring the ...| Portland Japanese Garden
Innovative programs, global collaborations, and experiential education for youth and adults are the hallmarks of Japan Institute.| Portland Japanese Garden
The next Peace Symposium will be held on September 21st, on the United Nation’s International Day of Peace, in New York City. These symposia are our signature program coming out of Japan Institute and is part of our Peace Programs series – special events and experiences created to inspire conversations about peace through the lens of cultural diplomacy.| Portland Japanese Garden
