Other Japanese gardens-6

The Japanese garden in Clingendael. The Hague.

At the beginning of the 20^th century the last owner but one of Clingendael, Marguérite Baroness van Brienen, traveled to Japan. She came home with a tea-house, lanterns and stones. Probably she herself has designed the garden. Not long after that the garden was made. In 1954 the estate came into the possession of the city of The Hague. In House Clingendael the Netherlands Institute of International Relations resides.

The existing park in English style was a very suitable place. Tall trees with long branchless trunks still provide an attractive atmosphere in the outer part of the garden. 

The extensive moss-covered areas are a real treasure. Sixty different kinds of moss could be counted.

 

The outer part: moss under tall trees	Pond and path

 

In the inner section the tea-house stands near the water which was shaped as a stream widening in some parts. Around the water mosses, ferns, Hosta’s and Lysichitums, also grasses and a small sand-beach.

A small red painted curved bridge provides a photogenic motif. Various kinds of Prunus, azalea’s (a large number of yellow-flowering Rh. mollis-hybrids) and fine maples, including many a brown-leaved one, furnish the place. From the beginning of May till mid-June the garden is open daily; it draws a lot of visitors then.

 

Pavilion and bridge	Time becomes visible

 

We saw this garden for the first time in 1972 and we were enthralled. It was so attractive, even with all those people around us it enchanted us.

The maintenance was perfect, the moss looked splendid and in our recollection the officials wore white gloves. Of course that was not the case, but seeing their dedication this with Japan associated image arose in us.

In 1999 we were there again and unfortunately it appeared that the garden had gone downhill. Perhaps couch grass and other weeds were not even the worst indication. If in the meantime a plan of action has not been made, then it should be made urgently.

To correct proportions. To remove some brown-leaved maples and to thin out and to prune other trees, shrubs and unwanted seedlings. To inspect closely the stonework of the paths. And to prevent ikebana being put on the small sand-beach.

The garden is worth an investment!

The Von Siebold Memorial Garden, on the grounds of the Hortus Botanicus in Leyden, is financed by Japanese as well as Dutch sponsors. The official opening was in 1990, four hundred years after the foundation of the Hortus. The almost four hundred years of Dutch-Japanese relations made up a second reason. In 1600 the first Dutch trading ship landed in Japan. Not long after that Japan locked itself up. The only communication with the rest of the world went through a few Chinese trading posts and through the Dutch trading post on the artificial islet Deshima near Nagasaki. Von Siebold (1796-1866),trained to be a physician, served in the Dutch army. In 1822 he was sent out to Deshima to take care of the people staying there. In addition to this, and that was a secret, he had to acquire knowledge as much as possible about Japanese affairs in the broadest sense.

The Japanese did not thank him for that, he was accused of spying and banished. He managed however to gain and to transmit much knowledge during the 7-8 years he remained in Japan. He sent plant-material in all sorts of forms to Leyden, where in the Hortus one still finds trees and shrubs originating from him. 

When Japan came open he was able to make a second journey, that time especially for business talks.  

 

As seen from the pavilion	Bust of Von Siebold	In the rear: the waterfall

 

The garden is intended as a tribute to this man, and it also commemorates the historical and sometimes stormy connections between Japan and the Netherlands.

Makoto Nakamura and Wybe Kuitert designed the garden. It is located on a rectangular lot of about 1000 m². In the north is an open pavilion with on the place behind it, in the embrace of the especially built red-brown wall, the bronze bust of Von Siebold that was made in 1934 by Wenckenbach.

From the pavilion we look out over the “dry landscape”. The by course gravel symbolized water is streaming towards us, starting from a waterfall next to a hill on two third of the length of the garden. Large and small natural stones structure the garden. (The two architects received additional assistance for the arrangement of the stones from professor Hiromasa Amasaki.) 

Two islands lie in the wider part of the gravel-water. A large Zelkova serrata that Von Siebold himself once provided, stands west of the waterfall. There are many plants in the garden, he once introduced. Around the gravel and the waterfall somewhat stylized, in the rest of the garden they are allowed to grow as their nature asks.