Tenshin-en: A at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts

Julie Moir Messervy

An urban haven for contemplation that embraces two cultures.

For many Westerners, the idea of owning a senses a mixture of design prowess and acci- Japanese garden is an unreachable dream. dent. Equally impressive are the lushness Busy, stressed in their workaday world, they and quantity of the plantings: over 70 imagine returning home to a serene paradise species-1750 specimens in all-adorn the of ancient stones perfectly set in a bed of landscape, changing the feeling and form of moss, flanked by rippling waters of a koi the garden through the seasons. In early pond. Here, in this miniature world, they spring, the white-panicled flowers of can give voice to their inner thoughts, day- andromeda hang as tresses from the shiny dreams, and spiritual longings; they can green of the shrub’s leaves. Mid-spring into become their true selves in a garden of early summer brings a continuous bloom of beauty. azaleas in shades of white, fuchsia, rose, Few of us will have the space, find the salmon, and pale pink, hummocking as time, or have the money to create such a small hills at the feet of tall stones and sanctuary in our lives. How fortunate it is, lanterns. Early to midsummer brings the then, that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, purple, yellow, and white iris, standing in built just such a garden for all of us to expe- upright sheaths behind rocks. In fall, the rience and enjoy. Sitting within its walls, maples, azaleas, and enkianthus turn bril- closed off from busy Boston traffic and liant hues of red, yellow, and orange to mark passersby, one feels sheltered in an oasis, the onset of colder weather, before the snows paradoxically surrounded by, yet removed drape the garden in winter. One could attend from, present-day urban life and times. the garden every day and discover oneself One sits in a curiously transcendent anew through the continuously changing world, feeling the stones as venerable souls appearance of plants amidst the unchanging set with a modern freshness and vigor, rem- stolidity of the stone elements. iniscent of rocky shorelines of New England, A of Cultures yet universal in the abstract power of their Merging dry composition. At first, the visitor feels Tenshin-en, the Garden of the Heart of overwhelmed by the energy of the place, Heaven, is a 10,000-square- contempla- nearly 200 rocks, set here and there, and tive viewing garden located at the north side

The Japanese lantern located near the water basin at Tenshin-en. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 4

The crushed gravel "sea" at Tenshm-en. Raking gives the effect of ripples on the water’s surface. Photo cour- tesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

of the West Wing of the Museum of Fine ism with a feeling of beauty and repose that Arts, Boston. Completed in 1988, the garden evokes the New England landscape. Rocky is named in honor of one of the museum’s coastlines, deep forests, soft hillsides, and first curators of Asiatic Art-Okakura craggy mountains are abstracted and recre- Kakuzo, also known as Okakura Tenshin. ated to remind viewers of the beauty and Tenshin-en is one of New England’s few diversity of this region. The intent, according semipublic viewing gardens in the Japanese to Professor Nakane, the garden’s designer, style. A true Japanese garden, according to was to create in the garden "the essence of cultural traditions, derives-and takes inspi- mountains, the ocean and islands ... as I ration-from the landscape around it. In this have seen them in the beautiful landscape of spirit the project team of landscape artists New England." flew over the New England region in a small Each rock, plant, and paving stone was plane to gain a sense of its geography and aes- chosen from local materials and combined thetic qualities. The resulting garden is an with artifacts selected from the Museum’s interpretation of two cultures, combining the collection or brought from Japan. Together depth of meaning of Japanese garden symbol- these intermingle to create a contrast 5

Lookmg along the curved path towards the gate at Tenshin-en. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. between natural materials and human The Halvorson Company, a Boston land- objects and arrangements. scape architecture firm, was chosen to pro- duce the technical documents and details of Tenshin-en Origins necessary to build a garden of another cul- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, asked an ture in this country. Our mandate was to internationally known garden master from combine an acute sensitivity to the nuances Kyoto, Professor Kinsaku Nakane, to design of Japanese design with a full understanding and construct a Japanese garden as an impor- of the legal and technical requirements of tant addition to the museum’s world- building projects in this country. Also renowned Asiatic collection. Funds for the included in the team were various subcon- project were donated by the Nippon tractors from this country and from Japan, Television Network Corporation, Mr. Yosoji each of whom brought specialized training Kobayashi, Chairman of the Board. and craftsmanship to different aspects of the As the garden master’s project coordinator, project. The landscape contractor was my responsibility was to assemble a project Donald B. Curran, Incorporated of Ipswich, team to carry out his conceptual designs. Massachusetts. 6

The garden evolved through a style of col- Professor Nakane, in a calm and almost laboration quite different from normal casual way, would set one stone at the American landscape architectural practice. takiguchi (waterfall), the next stone on the The garden master’s concept and execution tsurujima (Crane Island), and the next in the were upheld by the efforts of every team foreground of the garden. He saw the final member in an atmosphere of unstinting result in his mind’s eye and worked around commitment to the creation of a work of art: the whole garden to balance his composition the Museum’s curatorial staff guided the gar- right from the start. As well as fitting into den process and provided and conserved the design as a whole, each stone grouping many of its artifacts; the Italian masons set had to be balanced in its own right-all of Kyoto roof tiles on its walls; the Japanese which Professor Nakane accomplished with carpenters built a traditional gate in Kyoto, split-second decisions. When the composi- dismantled it, and reinstalled it on site with tion was complete, nothing needed to be the American carpenters’ help. All upheld altered; the whole felt dynamic and yet bal- the master’s concept, in a collaboration of anced. the highest order. After he had set the stones, Professor On one of his trips to the site, Professor Nakane returned to Japan while the walls Nakane was present to set the critical ele- and new sidewalks were installed. On his ments that make up the structure of the gar- next trip to Boston he set fifty-two trees on den. To watch him was to see a true master the day he arrived, but unexpectedly at work. For six hot days in July, 1987, returned to Japan the following day, called Professor Nakane established the positions back because of a death at the Osaka of the rocks in the garden. Attending to an University of Fine Arts, which he heads. At image of power and beauty that existed only that point, his son and chief assistant Shiro in his sketches and in his imagination, he set Nakane took over and set the remaining almost two hundred stones. plantings, ornaments, and stepping stones, With the aid of a 100-foot hydraulic crane, and supervised the erection of the Japanese its highly attentive operator, and three land- gate. scape crews, the shape of the garden began to Professor Nakane returned one more time emerge. One by one, the boulders, filling for the opening of the garden on October 24, eight tractor-trailer trucks, were bound and 1988. At that time, he declined to speak but chained to the crane’s wire. Like the conduc- chose instead to paint a sign for the garden in tor of a symphony orchestra, Professor sumie-Japanese ink. Inscribed is ten, shin, Nakane would indicate to one crew how and en (with Chinese characters) in his own deep into the ground they should dig, and to beautiful calligraphic hand. Since then, another which way the stone should face- Tenshin-en has been opened to the public and where its head, feet, front, and back from spring through fall and is visited by should be positioned. The crew placed the thousands of people every year. stones, some weighing as much as eight tons, in the ground and made minute adjust- Design Features of Tenshin-en ments under Professor Nakane’s watchful Tenshin-en is designed as a viewing garden eye. All this was done without a word spo- in the karesansui style, harkening back to , as Professor Nakane speaks only temple gardens of the fifteenth century Japanese. in Japan. Kare means "dry," san, "moun-

The plan of Tenshin-en at the Museum of Fme Arts, Boston. Reproduced courtesy of the Museum of Fme Arts, Boston. 7

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tain," and sui, "water"; thus it is a "dry them in their gardens. To the left is kame- mountain water" garden, or a dry landscape jima, the Tortoise Island; to the right is tsu- garden. Water is suggested by the raked rujima, the Crane Island. Looking carefully, gravel "sea," which unites all the landforms one can see the head, feet, tail, and flippers of the garden-the mountains, islands, and of the tortoise, and the head, wings, and tail rocky shoreline formed by mounded earth of the crane. and rocks. According to Professor Nakane, "The Tenshin-en relates to its surroundings by mountains and islands symbolize the nat- a technique called shakkei, that is, by bor- ural beauty of this region [New England], rowing and echoing the distant landscape and, at the same time, mean enduring pros- and bringing it into the garden walls. Curved perity and happiness for the Museum visi- shorelines and bridges within the garden tors." If one studies the garden’s design echo the lines of the Fenway landscape that features, the rocky coastline to the right abuts the museum on its north side, recalls the Maine Coast, and the two large designed by America’s premier garden mas- rocks on Crane Island suggest Mt. Fuji (on ter, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted the right) and one of New England’s best designed parks and green spaces during the known peaks, Mt. Monadnock (on the left). late 1800s, creating Boston’s "Emerald Looking carefully, one can see a profile much Necklace," the park system that links open like that of New Hampshire’s "Old Man in space from Franklin Park to the Boston the Mountain" on the floating island Commons as one nearly continuous sweep between the Crane Island and the rocky of green. Although conceived and designed coast. The stepping stone path area is an on a scale far vaster than Tenshin-en’s minia- abstraction of deep forests, and the mossy ture landscape, Olmsted understood the hillside behind the Crane Island recalls the need to evoke a harmonious understanding softly forested landscape of New England. of nature, as he wrote in 1879: "We want a The Stones ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they In the Japanese garden, the stones are the may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and backbone and provide the overall structure. feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the Rocks from Topsfield, Boxford, and Rockport, streets, where they shall, in effect, find the Massachusetts, total about 390 tons. Each is city put far away from them." placed according to ancient rules and tradi- tions dating back to the Middle Ages of A Deeper Reading of the Garden Japanese history. A dark granite vertical Visitors who understand the garden’s sym- stone and base, carved in Japan, is located to bolism will probably have a richer experi- the left of the waterfall, and says Ten-shin- ence of it. The dry "waterfall" (takiguchi) to en in Chinese characters, a gift of the gar- the back and left of the garden represents the den’s donor, Yosoji Kobayashi. Buddhist concept of shumisen or Mt. The Wall and Gate Sumeru, a mythic mountain thought to sup- Japanese port the heavens above and the world below, The wall is a modern interpretation of a and around which the universe was believed Japanese mud-and-wattle wall, seen in tem- to be centered. The two "islands" in the left ple compounds and surrounding traditional and right center of the garden are two of the gardens all over Japan. This wall, varying in "Mystic Isles of the Immortals," Taoist height from five to seven feet, was con- mythical islands said to bring immortality structed of poured concrete mixed with a and prosperity to those who incorporated light colorant, which was then sandblasted 9

One of the curved budges which link the "islands" to the "mainland. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. to roughen the texture. The base band is of and eaves tiles. A special Museum of Fine granite from Deer Isle, Maine, resembling Arts emblem tile, , featuring the the facade of the museum’s West Wing. museum’s seal, was also made up and From the outside, one can see only a nar- grouted to the end wall at the Education row round cap of tiles of a simple design to Entrance. meld with the spare lines of the West Wing. The imposing Japanese gate is called From the inside, one sees the full slant of the kabuki-, meaning "hanging gate" (and roof that protects a typical wall from the ele- does not refer to the famous Japanese the- ments. These silver tiles are made of clay ater.) A traditional gate for a mountain castle baked four times rather than the usual two, or large palace in Japan, it was chosen as a in order to accommodate Boston’s more Japanese-style horizontal counterpoint to severe climate. An old Kyoto firm, architect I. M. Pei’s large concrete beam at Yokoyama Seiga Kojo, specializing in shrine the entrance to the West Wing. The gate is and temple roof tiles supplied the 1500 built of Japanese cypress, a wood with excel- pieces that make up the roof, including lent natural preservatives. Special design fea- round roof tiles, stacked tiles, beam tiles, tures of the gate are the 13--wide post 10

Perennials in Tenshin-en Six hundred perennials adorn the garden. rum), goatsbeard (Aruncus canadensis), Ferns of many varieties are used with lady’s mantle (Alchemilla pubescens), iris hostas and liriope to soften the appear- [Iris ensata, sibirica, and cristata), gerani- ance of the rocks. Leatherleaf ferns as ums (Geranium endressi ’Johnson’s Blue’, well as lady, hart’s tongue, Japanese G. sanguineum), astilbes (Astilbe chinen- painted, Christmas, and maidenhair ferns, sis ’Pumila’, ’William Buchanan’), bleed- abound in the garden. Hostas include ing heart (Dicentra eximia ’Zestful’), wild ’Gold Standard’, ’Green Fountain’, ginger (Asarum europaeum), liriopes, and ’Francee’, ’Blue Cadet’, ’Nakiana’, and sedges (Liriope spicata, Carex comca ’Flavo Circinalis’, with five giant hostas ’Variegata’). One can also spot pachysan- featured outside the walls (’Halcyon’, dra (P. terminalis ’Cutleaf’) planted as a ’Christmas Tree’, ’Nigrescens’, ’Frances specimen near the water basin and step- Williams’, and ’Blue Angel’). Other peren- ping stone path. The groundcover moss is nials include bloodroot (Sanguinaria Polystrichum commune, known as hair- canadensis), trillium (Tnllium grandiflo- cap moss.

and beams (kasugi, or "umbrella wood" large stepping stone upon which one kneels curved beams above the two small doors), to partake of the water is called a maeishi, or the ornamental nail covers, and ironwork. "front stone"; the stone to its right is the The gate was constructed in Japan by yuokeishi, or "hot water container stone," Suzuki Komuten, carpenters who specialize on which such a container would be placed in building traditional Japanese structures. in winter so that guests could add hot water After being erected once for approval in to the basin to warm their hands. The stone Japan, it was disassembled and rebuilt in to the left is the teshokuishi, or "hand can- Boston. The wrought-iron fittings, hinges, dle stone," on which a guest might place a and nail covers, also fabricated in Japan, are portable candlestick when using the garden of traditional design. at night. The Water Basin The Stone Lanterns The water basin, or chozubachi, enables a Stone lanterns were originally used as votive visitor to ritually purify his or her body and lights placed in front of Buddhist temple mind as preparation for contemplating the buildings. In later years they played a more garden and for receiving inspiration and ornamental role and were designed specifi- renewal from its spiritual meaning. Similar cally for garden use-to light the path to a tea stone basins were used in tea gardens as ves- house or to light certain areas of a garden. sels for ritual cleansing before taking tea. Near the water basin is a small Japanese This chozubachi is in the fusen style, fu lantern of the Edo period (1603-1867), origi- meaning "to proclaim" and sen meaning nally located in the Japanese Court of the "spring of water." museum’s Asiatic Collection. It has a tall The stones around the water basin are mushroom-shaped "hat" and is placed so that arranged in the original Koho-an style. The it can cast light over the water basin at night. 11

In the northeast corner of the garden is a path for the viewer to take a visual rather kasuga-style lantern, a reproduction of one than an actual journey. These bridges, called from the Kawageta Temple, the original con- soribashi, or "curved bridges," are as long as sidered a "very important cultural property" 17 feet and weigh as much as 1.5 tons. by the Japanese Government. Dating from The 1311, the lantern is a very good example of Plantings late Kamakura-period (1185-1333) lanterns. It Over seventy species of plants give color and shows the then prevailing concern with texture to the garden. Cherries, Japanese power and beauty in its attacking lion and maples, and pines are all signature plants of peacock carvings. Single petals of lotus are a Japanese garden and serve as symbols of carved at the base, a Buddhist symbol of the the changing seasons. Tenshin-en is com- soul’s ascent from mud to the glory of flow- posed of a mixture of Japanese and American ering. species; such plants as Japanese Cryptomeria Just inside the gate is another kasuga-style combine with American holly to create a lantern, a reproduction of the main lantern new horticultural interpretation of an at the Joruri-ji Temple near Kyoto, carved ancient art form. about 1366. The shape of this lantern fol- lows the composition of the Kawageta Trees: Japanese maples, called kaede, or lantern but it is narrower overall: the lotus "frog’s hand" or momiji, are mainstays of a petals are taller, the window is smaller, and Japanese garden. Used to create a feeling of the curve to the roof is steeper. mountain scenery at the edge of a forest, A large Korean lantern in a fourteenth- they link open land to forested land. century style, originally located in the court- Broadleaf evergreen trees are generally not yard of the museum, is situated in the hardy in the Northeast, so American hollies, southeast corner of the garden. Outside the Ilex opaca, were used in place of some of the garden wall is a Meiji-period lantern, dating evergreen oaks that, in Japan, act as tall ever- from about 1880, featuring ornamental green screens to give the sense of a deep for- friezes of mountains and deer. est. Needle-leaf trees, including compact selections of the Canadian hemlock (Tsuga The Paths canadensis) and Cryptomeria japonica Japanese garden paths are based on the prin- ’Yoshino’, are used to create a lush back- ciple of shin-gyo-so. The path outside the ground to the waterfall and mountain path gate is of the shin, or "formal" style, the areas. Cryptomeria is part of the indigenous stepping stones are of the so, or informal vegetation in Japan and are planted exten- style, and the curved nobedan path is of the sively in holy areas such as shrine precincts. gyo style (somewhere between informal and Red pines (Pinus densiflora) and tanyosho formal in style). The cut stones on the pines (Pinus densiflora ’Umbraculifera’) are curved path are surrounded by black-washed used to highlight the islands. Mexican river stones set in mortar. This Deciduous trees used in the garden path brings one to the cut stone terrace on include Stewartia pseudocamellia, moun- which are three shogi benches of traditional tain ash (Sorbus decora), star magnolia design. The informal stepping stones paths (Magnolia stellata), and of course cherries: called tobiishi, take the visitor to the Korean the weeping cherry by the gate (Prunus sub- lantern, the water basin, or are used as an hirtella ’Pendula’), October cherries (Prunus alternate route back to the Japanese gate. subhlrtella ’Autumnalis’) and Sargent cher- There are also three bridges that link the ries {Prunus sargentii). The Japanese admire "islands" with the "mainland" and form a cherries as symbols of a life well-lived-they 12

Stone lanterns are used to light paths and highlight special areas of the garden’s design. Photo taken m 1988 and reproduced courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. bloom suddenly and abundantly, but are midseason bloomers of various colors: salm- gone nearly overnight, suggesting a good way on (’Guy Yerkes’), silver-pink (’Kaempo’), to face death as well. white with pink throat (’Geisha’), white (’Girard’s Pleasant White’, ’Polar Bear’), rose- Shrubs: The 1100 shrubs in the garden pro- red (’Vyking’), and the beautiful ’Purple vides its finished and colorful look. About Gem’. Late-blooming varieties include the 500 azaleas of many varieties provide color North Tisbury hybrids (’Wintergreen’, over two months in the spring. Early ’Yuka’, and ’Marilee’). Azaleas are pruned in bloomers include the Korean azalea (Rho- the karikomi, or cloud-form shape, to sug- dodendron poukhanensis) and varieties of R. gest the billowing forms of hills and to mucronulatum. The popular ’Delaware soften the base of the stones. Valley White’ azaleas and early reds Other shrubs used extensively are moun- (’Hinocrimson’ and ’Hinodegiri’) mix with tain laurels [Kalmia latifolia), andromeda 13

(Pieris japonica, P. floribunda), enkianthus rakes in lines parallel with the West Wing (Enkianthus campanulatus), kerria (Kerria wall. When the raker reaches an obstacle, japonica), daphne (Daphne burkwoodii such as a stone or island, he stands on it and ’Carol Mackie’), forsythia (Forsythia inter- rakes around it in a circle, continuing the pat- media ’Arnold Dwarf’), barberries (Berberis tern under the bridges and around all thunbergii, B. mentorensis), junipers [Ju- detached stones. Finally, the raker follows the niperus procumbens ’Nana’, J. chinensis edge of the garden’s "sea" around the perime- ’Sargenti’), euonymus (Euonymus alatus), ter until meeting the gate. The abstract lines holly (Ilex pendunculosa), and dwarf spiraea of "water" are most apparent during rainy or (Spiraea japonica ’Little Princess’). cloudy days, or when the textures are empha- sized by a thin veneer of snow. Maintenance Tenshin-en is frequented by viewers com- Contrary to popular opinion, a Japanese gar- ing to learn about another culture’s garden den is not a low-maintenance landscape. art, to enjoy the verdant atmosphere, or to One day a week throughout the garden’s seek a moment’s peace. In the Garden of the open season, a maintenance crew comes to Heart of Heaven, visitors will feel the truth tend the garden. Every week the crew prunes of the words of Okakura Tenshin who once certain trees and shrubs, weeds the moss, said, "One may be in the midst of a city, and and rakes the gravel. Other gardening chores yet feel as if one were far away from the dust occur at specific intervals during the year: and din of civilization." moss is trimmed for propagation, perennials are cut back or divided, fertilizers or horti- Tenshin-en is open to Museum of Fine Arts cultural sprays are applied, hemlock bark visitors from April to November, Tuesdays mulch is spread; azaleas are deadheaded and through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. also pruned at least twice a year to maintain their shape and size. Viewers are always curious about how the The designer of the Arnold Arboretum’s Linda J. garden is raked. Crushed granite gravel from Davison Memorial Path and the project coordinator of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, represents the Tenshm-en during its construction, Julie Moir Messervy "sea" of the garden’s landscape. A heavy six- is a landscape designer living in Wellesley. She is author of Contemplative Gardens (Howell Press, 1990) and is tine rake is used to the effect of give ripples currently finishing a new book, The Inward Garden, to on the water’s surface. Starting from the near be published by Little Brown and Co. m September right-hand corner of the garden, the crew 1993.