Peace garden honors late professor

0
J.J. Kawashima is seen at the gate of the Fuji Kawashima tea garden July 16, 2013 at Simpson Park
in Bowling Green, Ohio. The garden is named after her late husband. (Photos: Enoch
Wu/Sentinel-Tribune)

An “authentic” Japanese tea garden
is now located in Bowling Green.The Kawashima Peace Garden will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Saturday at Simpson
Garden Park, located at the corner of Conneaut Avenue and Wintergarden Road.This garden honors Dr. Fujiya
“Fuji” Kawashima, a widely-respectedprofessor of Asian history at Bowling Green State University, who
passedaway in 2006.Dr. Michelle Grigore, director of Bowling Green Parks and RecreationDepartment, is very
excited about the latest garden area at thefacility.“It’s going to be a very special garden. It is a very
accurate depictionof a true Japanese tea garden,” Grigore said. “It will provide a tasteof the Far East,
here in the midwest.”Kawashima, a Japanese native, came to Bowling Green in 1970 to teach andwas
instrumental in the establishment of the university’s Asian Historyprogram and was working to develop a
Peace Studies Program at theuniversity at the time of his death.“And so it is significant that this
beautiful Japanese tea garden isdedicated in the memory of Fuji Kawashima — a man of peace who worked
tobuild a bridge from the Far East to the Midwestern United States,”Grigore says. “We have tried to make
this as authentic as possible.”J.J. Kawashima, his widow, has spearheaded the effort to establish this
garden.She noted how her husband had helped establish a working businessrelationship between Japanese
business officials in Hiroshima with aBowling Green operation. He organized regular trips for students
tovisit his native country.“He tried to be a bridge between countries and the people. He alwayswanted to
bring Asia to the students at BGSU,” Mrs. Kawashima said.Although she is extremely pleased with the garden,
she notes it willonly grow in beauty in subsequent years as the plants and trees mature.As funds allow, the
garden could also be expanded from its current size.Mrs. Kawashima, a native of Korea, said the idea for the
garden wasfirst suggested by Steve McEwen of Henry Filters, with whom her husbandhad worked closely.McEwen
and others wanted to show how “they missed him as I do,” she said.“They showed their friendship and I am so
grateful that,” she added.“The idea of a peace garden seemed right because he was teaching aboutpeace.”She
added, “He loved Japanese gardens and if he sees this, he will be soexcited. We want this to be a very
quiet, serene and meditative place.”

The Fuji Kawashima tea garden at Simpson Park in Bowling Green, Ohio is seen on July
16, 2013.

The garden is designed throughout to
accurately replicate a Japanese teagarden, albeit on a smaller scale. It begins as one enters through
athreshold (gate) and entices the visitors to enter into a more spiritualworld, leaving the cares of their
life behind. The gateway includesbamboo pieces on the doors.At the entrance a plaque will welcome visitors
reflecting the purposeinviting the visitors to “Waft with its Waters, Remain with its Rocks,Flow through its
Flowers, Species upon species, spaced to grow, tobloom, to seed together, Divine with the dignity of their
mutualrespect, Affirming life, like Fujiya Kawashima.”A weeping bald cypress tree welcomes the guests near
the entrance. Othernotable plants include a Japanese black pine, a Yoshino cherry treewhich is very similar
to the cherry trees in our nation’s capital, aleather leaf Japanese maple tree, wisteria and a bloodgood
Japanesemaple.Stone Japanese lanterns will be placed under some of the trees.In addition to the cut bamboo
on the gate, bamboo shoots will be planted outside the back fence and grow there.The exit gate connects
visitors with the “Serenity Garden” area at Simpson Park, where there is a waterfall and pond.Mrs. Kawashima
says the path is purposely designed to allow visitors to meander and slowly enjoy the visit.The garden
includes a tsukubai or washbasin for ceremonial cleansing.The lanternsserve to guide the way and the machiai
or waiting area iswhere guests prepare for sado, the tea ceremony.In a tea garden the focus is on the
natural world including boulderswhich depict the mountains, pebbles which represent streams or lakes andflat
rocks representing islands in the sea of pebbles.All those elements and other traditional items are all
represented in the Simpson Park’s tea garden.“This is a contemplation garden to explore mentally while
seated in the machiai,” Grigore says.The machiai is the area where a covered bench is located. It serves as
apeaceful place for visitors to relax in preparation for the teaceremony.“This garden would not have
happened without J.J. being involved,”Grigore said. “She was the driving force behind building the
garden.”The director noted how she raised the funds through the Kawashima familyand friends including
concerts at Kobacher Hall by Kawashima’sdaughter, Kimi. The entire Kawashimi family is expected to be on
handfor dedication including their son, Ken Kawashima from Toronto, KimiKawashima and her sons, Luc and
Derek Hardink from Salt Lake City.For the dedication ceremony on Saturday The Kazenodaichi Taiko Team from
BGSU will provide Japanese drumming.The public is invited to attend the dedication and to regularly enjoy
the garden.

No posts to display