Japanese Garden at Potantico

After patiently waiting a couple of years, I finally had the opportunity to visit the Japanese garden at Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow, New York. 

The garden is open for public tours only a couple days each year. Getting a ticket can be difficult, once they go one sale, they disappear very quickly that day. The number of people is limited to 15 per visit, with two visits on that day, one in the spring and one in the fall. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund manages the site.

Website: https://www.rbf.org/pocantico/stewardship/japanese-garden-pocantico

Originally built between 1908-1910, the garden spans across the lower hillside below the Kykuit mansion. It contained a large oval pond surrounded by boulders that was fed by a brook. On the edge of the pond was a wooden Meiji-style teahouse, while elsewhere stroll garden pathway surrounded the site.

1909 Teahouse

Overgrown by the 1960s, Nelson Rockefeller renovated and expanded the garden. The teahouse was moved to an area adjacent to the existing garden. A new Shoin-style teahouse was built in 1962.

A series of stepping stone path wind through the garden, crossing a small brook, that leads towards a stone lined gorge and waterfall. The pond in front of the teahouse is edged with Japanese maples and yew. There is also a dry Zen garden in the style of Ryoan-Ji in Kyoto, Japan. There are cherry trees, azalea, rhododendron, daffodils and day lilies throughout. There are also several moss covered ares as well.

Reading: The Japanese Garden at Pocantico by Cynthia Bronson Altman

Photos:

Shôyôan Teien (Wesleyan University)

I had an opportunity to visit Shôyôan Teien of the Mansfield Freeman Center of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

The garden is located behind the Center and can be visited by entering through the front entrance. Once in, look for a small Japanese style room (Shôyôan - usually found in traditional Japanese homes). Once you enter, you can then view the garden (Shôyôan Teien) from within the room or exit onto a viewing deck (Engawa). However, do not enter or walk within the garden. It is not a Japanese stroll garden, but a viewing garden. One merely sits on the deck and contemplates what it would be like to walk through the landscape.

Website: https://www.wesleyan.edu/ceas/about/Japanese%20Garden%20and%20Tea%20Room.html

The garden was built in 1995 and was designed by Steven Morrell, and experienced Japanese garden designer and the garden curator of Shôyôan Teien. Funding for the garden was provided by the Freeman family whose long term support of the study of East Asia helped establish the Mansfield Freeman Center.

As usual, I am seeing a garden in summer - lots of green. This garden is best visited in spring and fall, when some color will emerge. I liked the rectangular shape of the garden, it reminded me of gardens I had visited in Kyoto and in some way my own backyard Zen garden. I would advise not visiting around noon time - the sun was directly above-center and was blinding. Photography was difficult with all that glare and It was unusually hot the day I visited - no contemplation for me, unless you consider heat exhaustion contemplation.

The garden was built in 1995 and it has evolved since then. There was, as there in every garden, the need for some weeding and plant maintenance, but overall the garden looked nice. I liked the winding nature of the path and the way it evoked the curving of the nearby Connecticut river.

Overall, Shôyôan Teien is a great garden and well worth a visit.

Garden Map:

Garden Map Source: https://www.wesleyan.edu/ceas/images/Japanese%20Garden.jpg

Photos: