The Japanese Garden (MoBot)

In September 1973, 900 eminent St. Louisans gathered in tuxedos and ball gowns (and a few Kimonos) at the Missouri Botanical Gardens (MoBot) for a Bal Orientale.  Sponsored by department store titan Stix, Baer & Fuller, the posh fundraiser featured cocktails by the lily pond, performances by Hong Kong and San Francisco dance troupes, a full orchestra, and public speeches by “honored guest Mr. Tateo Suzuki,” General Consul for Japan, and Koichi Kawana, the UCLA landscape architect who designed the new Japanese Garden, which in the coming years, would become the heart of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

In this, the first of a series on St. Louis’s long-beloved Japanese-style garden, we explore its contradictory origins and meanings. Conceived by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) as a gift to the city expressing thanks for its “warm welcome” to many of its members during and after WWII––and described by Kawana as an “expression of the Japanese character”––it has also been a locus, and symbol, of Americanization, not to mention a commoditization of Japanese culture by an adoring public.  The series features interviews with its long-time gardener, Ben Chu, and long-time director, Dr. Peter Raven, among others.  

[Future episodes will focus on the garden’s also vital, but underappreciated cultural heritage––and memorial––function for many in the Japanese American community. ]

[Image courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden (from Missouri Botanical Garden bulletin. [St. Louis:Missouri Botanical Garden],1913- https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/2191). ]