If you’re a subscriber of my blog, (first, thank you!) you may have noticed I’ve missed the last couple weeks of posting. I try to post an article every Sunday or so. But this past April, my day job had me traveling all over the country. As you can imagine, this got in the way of my garden antics. I’m happy to say that all that travel is over for a bit! And on the plus side, I got to sneak in a site visit to the Japanese Friendship Garden while I was in San Diego!

The Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego, California is only one of many attractions to see at San Diego’s Balboa Park. Balboa Park itself spans 1,200 acres of the downtown area. That’s larger than New York City’s Central Park! It’s home to 16 different museums, multiple gardens, and miles of hiking and walking trails. It was hard to pick just one garden to visit while I was there. But I settled on the Japanese Friendship Garden.

The Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego

There are many different kinds of Japanese gardens. And so, it’s difficult to categorize the Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego, truly made up of two gardens, upper and lower. Each garden differs slightly in look and feel. But I suppose it would be safe to call the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden a Tsukiyama garden. Tsukiyama gardens feature ponds and hills. Tsukiyama 築山 translates literally to “artificial hill”.

Balboa park has many natural hills of its own. So, while not entirely artificial, the Japanese Garden is an artificially constructed and landscaped area. Many of the trails in the Lower Garden cut into a canyon side. Small rivulets and ponds make up the base of these small canyons.

History of the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden

In 1915, San Diego hosted one of the world fairs. Balboa Park was the site of the Panama-California Exposition, honoring the completion of the Panama Canal the previous year. Much of Balboa Park’s current infrastructure is due to the 2 world fairs it has hosted (1915 and again in 1935). In 1915 one of the most popular exhibits was the “Teahouse” which stood for nearly 30 years after its construction.

In 1955, work began to restore a Japanese garden in Balboa Park. The original site, now occupied by the children’s zoo, was unavailable. Plans were made for a more expansive Japanese garden elsewhere in Balboa Park. In a notable start to the Japanese Friendship Garden, San Diego’s sister city, the City of Yokohama, presented San Diego with a snow lantern in 1956. This marked the friendship between the two cities.

In 1968, the San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society acquired a Japanese Gate and installed it at the entrance to the friendship garden. They dedicated the gate to Charles C. Dail in honor of his commitment to the city of San Diego. The gate later moved from the entrance of the friendship garden to its current location. From its prominent place at the top of the canyon, it now overlooks the Lower Garden.

In 1999, a major improvement project took place, closing the park to the public for 6 months while renovations were made. The Upper Garden received a major overhaul. A koi pond and Tea Pavilion replaced what was a large, grassy area. A Garden Study Center was set up to teach the art of Japanese gardening to visitors and the community. A part of the Upper Garden became a Bonsai Garden. While in the Lower Garden, they installed a 10,700 gallon koi pond and waterfall.

Elements and Principles of a Japanese Garden

In order for a garden to truly be called a Japanese Garden, it must display several key elements. Japanese Gardens are made up of water, plants, rocks, and ornamental features. These elements vary in quantities depending on the type of Japanese garden. For example, a Karesansui garden 枯山水 or dry / rock garden (commonly referred to as a Zen garden) has a greater quantity of rocks and sand than of water and plants. The San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden focuses on a balance of the elements. Plants are the main focus, but the landscape around the plants showcases carefully curated rocks and sculptures, while trails wind around deliberate water features.

Japanese gardens also follow 5 guiding principles:

• Asymmetry (Hitaishō 非対称) – the tribute to nature which is never perfect.
• Enclosure (Kakoi 囲い) – the framing of a particular view, sometimes through a window, sometimes through garden bench placement.
• Borrowed scenery (Shakkei 借景) – the idea that structures outside the garden but seen from the garden grounds are as much a part of the garden as the garden itself.
• Balance (Baransu バランス) – the even showcase of the elements.
• Symbolism (Shōchō Shugi 象徴主義) – the display of particularly chosen plants and their meanings.

Asymmetry (Hitaishō 非対称)

From almost the moment you walk into the Japanese Friendship Garden, a path greets you to show the way. But on either side of the carefully staked path are grasses with contrasting appearances. One with long, almost overgrown sweeping blades and on the other side another of tiny cropped bushes in neatly ordered rows. This is asymmetry at its finest, but is by no means the only rendition of it in all the garden.

What you may not realize at first glance is that both the grasses are actually the same. Each is a variety of Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) native to China, India, Japan, and Vietnam.

Those planted on the right side of the path is a dwarf variety of Mondo Grass. By making one side haphazard and the other carefully and symmetrically planted, we get a beautiful asymmetry.

Enclosure (Kakoi 囲い)

There are structures within the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden that allow visitors to walk inside and view the gardens through the window. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took while I visited could capture the unique nature of viewing the garden through the provided window. Locked into a finite view of the garden created a very different tableau than being in the garden proper.

In the lower garden, where there are fewer structures, this sense of enclosure is created by benches that line the paths.

Benches in a garden may seem random, but they’re not. Garden designers selectively choose each spot to place a bench. These are areas that will provide a proper view to visitors. Seated on these benches, visitors get another different, but still curated, view of the garden.

Borrowed Scenery (Shakkei 借景)

Due to its placement in Balboa Park, multiple museums of all kinds surround the Japanese Friendship Garden. This makes it an excellent example of borrowed scenery. The structures surrounding the garden are in sight, but not on the grounds of the garden itself. They make up the background, but are still part of the scenery and experience.

Borrowed scenery usually refers to a distant building or piece of dramatic natural formation. Perhaps it’s merely a stunning view of a sunrise or sunset that you can only glimpse once a day. But I found another piece of borrowed scenery in the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden. While quite different from the usual definition, this piece of borrowed scenery was not a sight, but a sound.

The Spreckles Organ (Outside the Japanese Friendship Garden)

The Spreckles Organ is the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. Like the Japanese Friendship Garden itself, it was installed in Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. I was lucky enough to accidentally arrive on Sunday at 2pm when the Spreckels Organ Society hold their weekly free pipe organ concerts.

I sat to listen to the first piece, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 531 played by organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez. Then I left to tour the Japanese Friendship Garden, all the while listening to the borrowed musical scenery lent by the pipe organ concert.

Balance (Baransu バランス)

We’ve already seen one example of balance (oddly enough, in the asymmetry section above). There, the two contrasting varieties of Mondo Grass provide asymmetry, but because they are both Mondo Grass, they are also in balance.

Balance is everywhere in the Japanese Friendship Garden. Gravel paths balance against sturdy stones which in turn balance against soft water. Bushes balance on either side of benches. Even tree varieties are planted in balance to better enclose an article of particular interest. Like this Japanese Cherry Tree (Prunus serrulata) framed in elegant balance with two pines. Symbols of strength, endurance, and eternity surround the symbol of rebirth and renewal.

Symbolism (Shōchō Shugi 象徴主義)

Pines and cherry trees are not the only symbols in the Japanese Friendship Garden. Not by far! Nor are they the only plants that carry meaning. Wisteria in the upper garden is a symbol of good luck and longevity. Chinese Fringe in the lower garden symbolizes balance.

Visitors to the Japanese Friendship Garden also find symbolism overtly in the statues and sculptures that line the paths. The statue of Kongo Rikishi is one prominent example. The statue represents one of the Buddah’s two guardians. Renditions of them often stand outside of Buddhist temple entrances. One guardian stands open mouthed and overt with his anger. The other keeps his mouth closed, holding his anger within. Yin and Yang represented even in the Buddah’s own guards.

The statue that exists at the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden originally stood at the Middlegate Japanese Garden in Pass Christian, Mississippi. When Hurricane Katrina all but destroyed the Japanese garden at Middlegate, the statue suffered significant damage. After its donation in 2017, San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden restored the statue and placed it in the gardens where he stands guard once again to this day.

Spring Plants in San Diego’s Japanese Friendship Garden

In addition to all the plants noted above, I’d like to give a nod to some of the garden’s other beautiful plants. These plant were in bloom or otherwise showy during the beautiful spring day when I had the opportunity to visit.

Azaleas

The ever-classic Azalea made several appearances in several colors at San Diego’s Japanese Friendship Garden. These beautiful flowering bushes thrive in the shade under the canopy provided by the larger trees.

Japanese Camellia

Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica) is a showy flower that thrives in the dappled sun of the overhanging trees. Despite its name, it’s actually native to China and not Japan. But we’ll forgive it because it’s so vibrant and beautiful. I was lucky to catch this one in the Japanese Friendship Garden when I did. Japanese Camellia flowers in winter and spring. Therefore it was at the end of its flowering lifecycle when I spotted it.

Japanese Honeysuckle

Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is also called golden-and-silver honeysuckle. It’s easy to see why when you look at their white and yellow tinted flowers. The blossoms get their name from their sweet smelling pollen. The plant is native to East Asia but they have been introduced to much of the rest of the world where it quickly becomes invasive.

Japanese Maple

What’s a Japanese garden without a Japanese maple? These beautiful trees grow their red leaves in early spring and provide a hue of autumn to an otherwise golden green woodland landscape. Domesticated Japanese maples are typically very short, but in the wild the plant can get 20 to 30 feet tall.

Japanese Privet

An evergreen shrub in the olive family, Japanese Privet (Ligustrum japonicum) is native to southern Japan and Korea. It is naturalized in the United states in California (as in this picture from San Diego) and in the southeast U.S. from Texas to Virginia.

Greater Periwinkle

Any child who has ever colored with crayons knows the color periwinkle, right? Or was that just me? Seeing the periwinkle flower in person, however, is something else entirely. It’s no wonder they named a color after it. Greater Periwinkle (Vinca major) is actually native to western Mediterranean. What it was doing in the Japanese Friendship Garden, I’m not sure, but I’m glad I spotted it.

Heavenly Bamboo

Because where I live on the east coast has some similar connection to Japan as San Diego, I’m lucky enough to have this plant growing right outside my front porch. So, I recognized it immediately for what it was. Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) is also called Sacred Bamboo. The berries are inedible to humans because they contain cyanide, but many birds will eat their berries in late winter when there’s little else to eat.

Wisteria

Wisteria has a wide native base. Native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and North Iran. There are only four species of these twining vines that produce hanging flowers in various shades of pinks and purples.

What to Know About the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden Before You Go

If you visit the Japanese Friendship Garden, make sure you’re prepared. They charge a small fee to get into the garden, but at $14 USD, it’s hardly prohibitive.

Sunscreen & Water Bottles

San Diego’s climate is mild, but very sunny. So, sunscreen is an absolute must. Yes, Japanese gardens are generally shaded. This one is no exception. But getting to and from the gardens can be a bit of a walk in the bright sunlight. Better safe than sorry.

There are food and snack locations without and within the grounds where you can purchase drinks and food, but it’s best to bring your own water bottle. Plus, there is a restroom with water fountains in the lower garden where you can re-fill if, like me, you start to run low.

San Diego’s Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park is Well Worth Your Time!

If you’re ever in San Diego, I highly recommend you spend an afternoon at the Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park. Or, better yet, spend an entire day at Balboa park and see as many as you can of the wonderful museums that the park has to offer! But whatever you do, don’t skip the Japanese Friendship Garden. It is well worth your time!

Leave a comment if you’re planning to go and what you plan to see! If you’ve been there before, let us know what you saw when you were there. Japanese gardens embrace the idea that nothing is forever and embraces constant and inevitable change. One visit will never be like another. I hope I can go back some day.