Japanese Garden
It all started with one small acre
1950’s. The San Mateo Gardeners Association, mostly Japanese-Americans, propose a Japanese garden “to let people know that the friendship between our peoples is strong … and nurtured through an exchange of culture and beauty.”
1965. The Gardeners Association form a Koen-kai group (a support association) to fundraise monies to build the garden. The garden was created by the volunteers with equipment provided by the city.
The designer was a leading landscape architect, Nagao Sakurai, formerly a landscape architect at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. The garden boulders were supplied by Lyngso Garden Materials and came from Tehama County. John Lyngso reports that Mr. Sakurai carefully selected and sketched the boulders for the garden. 450 tons were delivered but four were missing. Using the sketches John was able to go back and find the missing stones.
�August 28,1966. The garden is dedicated.
The triangle element of Japanese culture was included in the garden design -- heaven, man and earth, unified by water.
A major attraction is the collection of colorful koi carp, gifts of local carp fanciers.�
1968. An authentic teahouse is added. It served tea until 1978 when funding cuts ended the service.�
In 2007, $500,000 was allocated for improvements and repairs to the Japanese garden.
Japanese Garden for Central Park
Drawing by Sakurai & Sakurai from the
scrapbook San Mateo Japanese Garden
created by Tom Takayama, 1966�San Mateo County
Historical Association (2021.1.1.7)