INTRODUCTION

2013 was as THE 20th anniversary of the Japanese Garden Society. This biographical portrait describes the Society, the way the Society has developed and how it has increasingly sought to use gardens as a way of fostering and developing relationships between the UK and Japan and introducing the British public to Japanese culture through gardens. Now in its 21st year and with some 600 members, the Society is run entirely by volunteers and two years ago became a charity with the aim of providing education to the public on all aspects of Japanese gardens.

The story of the Society is set against a brief history of Japanese gardens in the UK.

THE JAPANESE GARDEN SOCIETY – ORIGINS

The idea came from a group of landscape architecture students at Manchester University in early 1993. One mature student in particular, Dr David Hackett had been fascinated by the Japanese Garden (with a capital ‘G’ to distinguish the art form from individual Japanese gardens). Following this interest and while based in Cardiff, he won a travelling scholarship from the Welsh Arts Council to study the dry gardens of Japan. With a base in the Department of Forestry at the University of Kyoto he worked with a Japanese Garden designer, visiting gardens in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara. On return, and following a travelling exhibition of his photographic study of Japanese gardens, David enrolled on a post-graduate Landscape Design course at Manchester University to learn the techniques that would enable him to work in this medium.

The tutor at Manchester, David Baldwin was also interested in Japanese gardens and used to take students to study the Japanese garden at Tatton Park. David Hackett had the idea of forming a society for anyone with an interest in Japanese Gardens, ably supported by David Baldwin and Sam Youd, Head Gardener at Tatton Park.

After a series of exploratory meetings a notice was placed in an article in the Daily Telegraph for a meeting entitled ‘1993 Conference on Japanese Gardens’, to be held at Tatton Park on 3 July. There were over a hundred attendees from all over the country and the idea of forming a Society was given public approval.

Interest in things Japanese and gardens in particular had grown partly at least as a result of the successful and wide-ranging Japan Festival in Britain held in 1991.