Category Archives: Garden Tours

Chronicling the Construction of a Hoichi Kurisu Japanese Garden & My Interview of HK

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This is the video documentary—possibly the first of its kind—of the construction of a Hoichi Kurisu Japanese garden from initial ground breaking to its final completion. Nathan Lawrence job-shadowed and recorded on video Kurisu and his crew over a period of several months as this amazing garden by this world renowned Japanese landscape architect took shape. At the end of the video is an interview of Mr. Kurisu as he discusses his views on the importance of the Japanese garden in modern culture and what keeps him going at age 86. This is a one-of-a-kind video that no garden enthusiast will want to miss.

Newberg Oregon’s Japanese Garden, Hiroshima, Hoichi Kurisu & Me

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The title of this video begs some explanation. It is NOT click bait! In a small, rural town tucked away in Oregon is an authentic public Japanese garden that has direct connections to Japan, as the title suggests. Plus it was designed and built by the world renowned landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu. What’s equally amazing is that this garden is at, of all places, a middle school. So what is my connection to it, you may be wondering? This garden hadn’t been properly pruned in several years, I had the privilege of being the one to do it and help to bring it back to its previous glory. Though I have aesthetically pruned the trees and shrubs in many private Japanese gardens, this was my first public garden. This video chronicles everything mentioned above. Please check it out.

Hoichi Kurisu Requests to See Nathan’s Japanese Style Garden

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Hoichi Kurisu, a world renowned Japanese garden designer and builder and the leading, living Japanese garden architect in the U.S., has paid us a visit!

Several days ago, Nathan gave Mr. Kurisu a tour of his own private Japanese style garden which he calls The Lawrence Cascadian Sukashi Garden. Accompanying Kurisu were Keir, his head project manager; Chino also a project manager; and Ishi, one of Kurisu’s many highly skilled garden craftsman.

Hoichi Kurisu is the builder and or designer of several of the top Japanese gardens in America including the Portland Oregon Japanese Garden, the Morikami Japanese garden in Delray, FL, the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, Ill, the Frederick Meijer Japanese Garden in Grand Rapids, MI, and countless other public and private gardens in the US and in Japan.To learn more about Hoichi Kurisu, just do a web search using his name or go to https://www.kurisu.com to learn more about this amazing artist and national treasure!

In the photo below from left to right: Keir, Nathan, Chino, Ishi and Hoichi Kurisu.

From left to right: Keir, Nathan, Chino, Ishi and Hoichi Kurisu.