A new Japanese Garden in Ashland

Oct. 15—In time for the trees to turn their fall colors, Ashland Parks and Recreation will unveil a grand new iteration of Lithia Park's century-old Japanese garden

The official opening will run from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22.

The new garden rises up from a hillside in the heart of Lithia Park, where a Japanese garden of some form has stood since 1916, explained Michael Black, Ashland Parks and Recreation director and project manager for the park.

A white wall topped with shiny black shingles stands between the garden and Winburn Way. Beyond the new wooden entrance gate, complete with traditional Japanese joinery fashioned by a local artisan, everything in the garden has a reason, Black explained.

Throughout the park, trees and rocks are arranged as complementary equals and opposites, male and female, dominant and subdominant. Black spoke from his experience working alongside the park's designer, classically trained Japanese landscape artist Toru Tanaka.

The choice, position and number of every tree and rock carries an accompanying symbolic meaning linked to Japanese philosophy and spirituality, he said — even the thin black cord holding together a dried bamboo barrier beside that first path.

The parks department already has done some private tours as the park nears completion, and the city hopes to have docents trained for those who want to delve into the myriad details and symbolic meanings contained in the pruning of the trees and the number of the rocks. Maps will be available, but inside the park there will be no signs, not even to thank the donors who made the park possible.

Previous iterations of the park would have focused on fixing the problems that plagued the previous park: faulty pumps, a flooding creekbed and trees preparing to leave this world. Thanks to $1.65 million in donations, parks and recreation was able to hire Tanaka to create something grander and more authentic than before, he said.

It was in part the decision of two of the most significant donors for the park, Jeff Mangin and his wife, Rebecca, that the park be left clean of the usual donor acknowledgments.

Inspiration for the park began seven years ago, Mangin explained, after the passing of his first wife, Béatrice Marechal. The couple enjoyed many hours walking in Lithia Park and the Japanese garden during her life.

Mangin said he and Marechal's family decided they wanted to do something like this in her memory. Now, he said, the park is bigger than that — it's a gift to the whole community.

"Here, you're really entering into a pure experience," he said.

The gates to the park — one facing Winburn Way and the other allowing for an entrance on the hillside, are designed to create a sense of departure from the world outside.

To help achieve this, Black explained, the designer made the paths inside curved to prevent looking too far ahead in any one direction.

"The designer wants you to experience the here and now, rather than looking ahead to see what's coming," Black said. "Outside the garden we might be like, 'OK, what's my next step; where's my next appointment' ... That's kind of typical today. But when you're inside the garden, he wants you to be able to experience where you are now."

Alcoves off the main path are established in several places with natural rock benches, designed to invite quiet contemplation. Black pointed to some rocks and explained they came from a river and mountains nearby, and Tanaka laid them all with his own hands. With the exception of the rocks already in the area, which could not be moved, these signaled they belonged there, he said.

The creek flowing through the park flows into a pond, which they hope will hold koi next spring, Mangin said. For now, the pond is slowly filling for next Saturday's grand opening.

At the headwaters of the creek is a new waterfall, with carefully arranged rocks of various sizes, one jutting out proudly, another tucked in and smaller but facing the other.

"There's two paths where the water comes through," Black said, pointing to the two rocks. "One of them is the dominant, and one's a little smaller, and they come together and separate and come together and separate multiple times."

Black said he doesn't know if the designer meant for this separating and rejoining of the waters, but for him it symbolizes two making one, two opposites making a beautiful symmetry.

"We intend to have some kind of narrative for people to say when they're giving tours, but we also want to let them say, 'Hey, this is just want it means to me; you may see it differently; it can be interpreted different ways,'" he said.

At the height of the garden, near the waterfall, a tea garden is intended, but for now the space is only smooth dark dirt surrounded by a wooden fence. There wasn't enough funding to pay for an authentic Japanese tea garden, Mangin explained.

For now, Mangin said, a bench will be set up in the area, another island for meditation will hold the space while the work is done to raise money and plan for the tea garden, all with the help of interested Ashland residents and members of the local Japanese community.

Even though the garden will be beautiful when it opens, Mangin said, it won't be finished.

Ashland parks and donors like Mangin believed it was important to open in time for the fall colors. To do that, they will have to accept opening the gates before the work inside is complete. But, Black said, in some ways this is appropriate to the garden's purpose and meaning.

"Let's get from point A to point B as quick as we can — that's a Western thing. That's not what this is about," Black said of the garden.

"You could even say it will never be done; it's just going to keep evolving and evolving. As these plants grow up, and others die out, and these trees get bigger and bigger, it will just keep evolving. Even with the seasons — in the spring, we'll have the cherry blossoms; in the fall, we'll have the colors."

The grand opening of the garden will feature food trucks, self-guided tours through the garden and demonstrations of Japanese art forms such as bonsai and ikebana.

Ashland Taiko (traditional Japanese drumming) will perform at 2 and 3:30 p.m., near the Butler Bandshell in Lithia Park. Elbow Room Taiko will perform at 4:30 p.m. to conclude the event.

For more info, see the Ashland Japanese Garden website at ashlandjapanesegarden.org/events/.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.