TOP: Jūki Iida surveying the construction site. (Photo: Don Sherwood Parks History Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives)
BOTTOM: Heavy machinery was used to expedite construction. (Photo: Arboretum Foundation)
oak, Pasania or Lithocarpus edulis; and mokkoku,
Ternstroemia gymnanthera were scarce and where
I did find them they were not thriving. Assuming
there was a lack of soil compatibility, I decided
not to use them. As the rhododendron is the
Washington State flower, and there are many
varieties, I thought that they were very useful as
long as I avoided gaudy ones.
The nurseries stocked only small plants under
seven inches, which made planting them harmoniously
with the large-scale rocks difficult. Most
of the trees were upright, requiring deep consideration
in how to plant them appropriately. There
were abundant choices for ground covers.
… Shoku Sai, Planting
As I mentioned before, all the plants were the
size of starts and difficult to harmonize with
the rocks. Sometimes we deliberately slanted
the young straight trees. We pruned most of the
lower branches of some trees located in the path
of view lines. Of course, I had to admit that our
work looked pretty strange, however, it was done
with the future in mind.
Fortunately, we obtained spruce and yew
trees seven-to-eight-feet high so we could plant
them from the base of the waterfall up the hill
around the jūsansō-tō thirteen-story pagoda….
We planted the shorter four-to-five-foot tall,
red, black, shore, and white pines around the
shoreline and on the middle island. I reminded
people they would reach the desired height and
shape in about ten years.
—From “About the Japanese Garden at the
University of Washington,” by Jūki Iida
. . . . . .
“Niwa”, No 13, February 1974, pp. 19–24.
Shizue Prochaska and Julie E. Coryell, translators
Seko, The Construction
(People and Machines)
…Skilled drivers of tractor or bulldozer were
readily available. Although Mr. Iida’s charismatic
personality and his flexible management skills
obviously contributed to the rapid completion
of this construction project, the efficiency of the
machines was a major factor as well. Of course,
the work done tended to be rough without
remedy. We used on our site trucks, tractors,
dump trucks, bulldozers, cranes, tampers, etc.
Among these, trucks, dump trucks and bulldozers
were useful as we all know. We used handheld
tampers for packing small stones and sand into
the backside of stonewalls and for pounding
cement.
I was curious how they would handle a huge
garden rock. For the largest, the kagami ishi
(mirror rock) [with a smooth, reflecting surface]
for the waterfall, weighing about seven-tons,
they rented a huge 35-ton crane with a 60-foot
reach and with no trouble installed the rock.
It was indeed possible to place stones up the
hillside, even from a considerable distance. The
rental of this machine cost $200 a day including
two operators. This might sound expensive, but
the work was done quickly, so it was economical
after all. Working together skillfully, the
two operators responded well to our detailed
requests. Since the crane lifted rocks with chains
wrapped directly around them, the moss could
drop off and the surface scratched. One needs to
be very careful when wrapping rocks with chains.
—From “The Japanese Garden in Seattle,” by
Nobumasa Kitamura
“Toshi Koen”, No. 26, November 1960,
pp. 6–16.
Translated by Keiko Minami Page (2009); edited
by Prochaska and Coryell m
Niall Dunne is the editor of the “Arboretum
Bulletin” and the communications manager for
the Arboretum Foundation.
Summer 2020 v 11