Portland Japanese Garden

The Portland Japanese Garden is a 5.5-acre landscape located within Washington Park. The garden offers lessons on how to carefully balance nature and human activity. It's also a community resource for cultural diversity, hosting exhibits and lectures that connect Portland to the contributions of the Japanese.

The Japanese Garden opened in 1967 after Portland became a sister city to Sapporo, Japan in 1958. The garden was established on the site of the former Washington Park Zoo. It was designed by Takuma Tono, a professor from Tokyo, internationally known for his work on Japanese landscape design. In 1988, his excellency Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga visited the Portland Japanese Garden and described it as “the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan.” 

The garden is asymmetrical in design to reflect nature’s idealized form. It is composed of five different landscapes: The Strolling Pond Garden, The Natural Garden, The Sand and Stone Garden, The Flat Garden, and The Tea Garden. It's operated by The Japanese Garden Society of Oregon, a non-profit organization.

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