Click on the links to Tour The Garden

• Entrance

•Dry Garden

• Directional Stone

• Wet Heron Lantern

• Lake & Islands

• Log bridge

• Kasuga Lantern

• Snow Viewing Lantern

• Boat Landing

• Gingko Trees

• The Heavenly Floating bridge

• Tea House and Gardenni

• Shoin Building

• Entrance Gate

• Waterfall viewing arbor

• Waterfall

• Crane Island

• Daikoku Lantern

• Zigzag Bridge

• Weeping Willow

• Viewing Platform

• Admin. Building

The Japanese Garden
Suiho En the garden of water and fragrance is a 6.5 acre authentic Japanese garden fashioned after “stroll gardens” constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries for Japanese Feudal lords. Our facility is unique in that it incorporates three classical designs: a dry karensansui, a wet garden with promenade chisen, and an authentic tea ceremony garden incorporating a 4.5 tatami mat tea room.

DOCTOR KOICHI KAWANA The Garden Creator
Dr. Kawana designed more than one dozen major Japanese gardens in the United States, including botanical gardens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Diego's Balboa Park and gardens in Denver, Chicago, Memphis, Minneapolis, and the largest Japanese garden in the United States - the 14 acre garden in St. Louis. He pioneered the design of traditional Japanese gardens which utilized plants native to the area of the garden.
A native of Hokkaido, Japan, Dr. Kawana was listed in Who's Who in America, the Dictionary of International Biography, and Who's Who in Art, among others. Awards include Progressive Architecture's Design Award for design of this garden; the Victor M. Carter Diamond Award, the highest honor of the Japan America Society of Southern California; the Companionate of Merit in Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem in Edinburgh; and the Gold Medal from Academia Italia della Arti de del Lavoro. National Geographic Magazine featured Dr. Kawana's St. Louis garden in its August, 1990, issue.
Dr. Kawana died in September, 1990, at age 60. Professional associates recall him as a "renaissance man," a garden designer, architect and artist whose paintings are now collectors' items - writer, poet, collector of fine art and teacher. He taught ikebana informally—Japanese architecture and landscape design at UCLA, formally. One associate wrote, "He taught me about the art of gardening and human grace."