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:

The Japanese Gardens at Cedar Hill

The Japanese Gardens at Cedar Hill are part of a private estate in Roxbury Connecticut. The garden was open to the public as part of The Garden Conservancy "Open Days" event. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, as were many others - the garden was very crowded on the day I visited. As a result, it was difficult to get the type of panoramic photos I would have preferred.

Website: http://www.cottages-gardens.com/Connecticut-Cottages-Gardens/May-2018/A-Stunning-Japanese-Garden-in-the-Heart-of-Litchfield-County/

The garden is not a typical Japanese garden. There is a fusion between eastern and western elements. There was a great deal of attention to detail and there were specific locations throughout the garden that demonstrated excellent examples of Japanese garden features. I can only imagine the financial costs associated with building and maintaining such a meticulous garden.

The area around the "teahouse" was well thought out with plantings, walkways, and hardscape stones reflecting aspects of Japanese garden features I have seen elsewhere in my travels. It was nicely designed by Chris Zaima, a garden designer who collaborated on the project and was one of my favorite parts of the garden.

Although the pool and hot tub area were nice, I felt that they were a bit out of place for a garden and more inline with a backyard patio area (a lot like the gazebo area next to my own Zen garden). The surrounding plants and trees were nice additions to the pool area, but that particular view, although beautiful, did not seem to reflect a traditional Japanese garden, hence the east-west fusion. I also did not find the other areas of the extensive gardens to be very Japanese. They were no doubt inspired by an Asian ethos, but they were a different style altogether. They reminded me of the esthetic I witnessed at the Innisfree Garden in New York. As a result, the pictures below only show some of the features of the gardens at Cedar Hill, but they are some are the elements that I thought best reflected Japanese traditions.

The garden is a unique example of a fusion garden and if open in the future is well worth a visit.

If you look closely, you can see that the stone work next to the lanter represents a turtle (kame), a symbol of longevity. This is one of two such stone works in the garden, the other a smaller version located within the waterfall behind the teahouse.

The Hammond Museum & Stroll Garden

The Hammond Museum & Garden is not the first Japanese garden I have ever visited, but it is the first one I intentionally visited in the United States. 

I first visited back in 2011 in the early spring and again in August of 2018. The garden was the creation of Natalie Hays Hammond, an artist who had traveled extensively an built the Hammond Museum and Garden in 1957.

Website: The Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden

The garden is an extensive stroll garden and consists of features found in Hill and Pond, Stroll, and Tea gardens. There is a large pond with an island, small dry-landscape Zen-feature, a bamboo grove, cherry trees, and a variety of lanterns and other sculptress within. 

Many mature gardens from this time period often fall into disrepair. However, the Hammond Museum and Garden maintains an ongoing effort to revitalize and care for the garden. Volunteers play a key role in helping the garden maintain the spirit of its original intent. Additionally, their mission to educate people about Japanese culture via events and exhibits makes the Museum and Garden the perfect place to start your own adventure into discovering the joys of Japanese gardens.