By Makoto Suzuki
At the beginning of the new millennium, the hottest news in the United States of America - and perhaps even globally - may be coming from Florida's Palm Beach County. As you know, this is the county that delayed and determined the recent Presidential election. The number of Florida's electoral seats shows clearly that its population is the fastest growing of any state in the U.S. Florida also has one of the fastest growing economies of any state. Amid all this you find the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in the resort town of Delray Beach, 30 minutes south of the Palm Beach International Airport, and about an hour north of Miami.
The beautiful beaches and fair weather of Palm Beach County's Atlantic coast draw many people seasonally from northern states, particularly from New York. Called snowbirds by Florida's full-time residents, northerners seeking Florida's warm winter climate begin to arrive in late November and leave in Spring. However, an increasing number of people are now arriving in Florida to stay; huge residential communities are rapidly expanding westward throughout the county.
The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens are located on 200 acres (81 hectares) of parkland, currently owned and managed by Palm Beach County. The Museum and Gardens cover 16 acres (6.5 hectares) within the parkland.
In 1977, the park's first museum, Yamato-kan, was built. But in order to know the real history of these Japanese gardens, you must go back 100 years to the beginning of the 20th century, the organization of the Yamato agricultural colony and one young man, Sukeji Morikami (1886-1976). Sukeji Morikami remained committed to the land (what is now parkland) from the time that he arrived in Florida in 1906 until the end of his life. In his will, Mr. Morikami donated 200 acres of his land to Palm Beach County. His sincere wish was that it be used as parkland in memory of the former Yamato Colony. That wish became reality; Morikami Park has been a gem among Palm Beach County's 75 parks.
Interestingly, around 1904, the Imperial Japanese Garden at the World Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, had created quite a stir, with everyone talking about it. At that time, a young Japanese man named Jo Sakai (1874-1923), a graduate of New York University, was on his way home to Miyazu. The purpose of his trip home was to gather people to start a new life in a new land. That year, more than 20 Japanese pioneers traveled across the globe to Florida, with hopes of farming the land. They settled just south of Delray Beach and founded the Yamato Colony. At that time, the area was a vast swampy wilderness, teeming with alligators, snakes, gnats and mosquitoes. For centuries, the intense humidity and heat of the subtropical summers had discouraged human habitation. Nevertheless, the Japanese spirit of perseverance succeeded in establishing an agricultural community, growing pineapples as a man crop. But success was brief. Prosperity gradually faded under severe weather conditions and a changing pineapple market. By the 1920's people started to leave the colony. Some went home, others moved to different cities in the U.S. Finally, only one colonist remained - a life-long bachelor who farmed the land through World War II and until the end of his life; that man was Sukeji Morikami.
The former colony is now honored and detailed at the Yamato-kan Museum, through photographs, newspaper articles, artifacts, and information on the pioneers' experiences. This small-scale museum and the modest Japanese-style gardens surrounding it were the main features of Morikami Park until 1993, when a new museum was constructed. The first garden designer was Seishiro Tomioka, at that time Director of the Planning Department for Palm Beach County, who later became a landscape professor at Louisiana State University.
The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens really began to develop in 1993, when a new museum (10 times the size of the original Yamato-kan) was built.
Completed in 1993, with a budget of $3.5 million, the current Morikami Museum covers about 32,000 square feet. Its Japanese-style exterior houses several galleries, a 225-seat theater, a small library, tea room (shin shin an), multi-media room, classrooms, gift shop, offices and café. It is a unique museum that exclusively exhibits Japanese art, crafts, life and culture. It is the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to living Japanese culture, and the largest outside of Japan.
The Museum is owned and maintained by Palm Beach County Department of Parks and Recreation. Since the end of the 1970's, Morikami, Inc. - a non-profit volunteer corporation - had operated the Museum and Gardens jointly with the County, organizing special events, planning, and fundraising. Through permanent and seasonal exhibits, many cultural seminars and special events, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens contribute to a greater understanding of Japanese life and culture.
Now, in the first spring of the 21st century, the Museum's new 16-acre (6.5 hectare) Japanese Gardens have been born, and the name of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens have become world-renowned.
Hoichi Kurisu
About 10 years ago, a friend in Boston mentioned to me that there was talk of a Japanese garden being built in South Florida. I visited Delray Beach for the first time in 1990 to follow up on what I had heard. I learned that there, on land between Delray Beach and Boca Raton, had been a Japanese farming colony in the early 1900's, and that as an old man, Sukeji Morikami, the last remaining member of the colony, had donated all 200 acres of his estate to Palm Beach County. I was impressed by Morikami's pure heart when I came across something he said shortly before he died: "America has been so good to me. I came here with nothing and I am going to leave with nothing."
South Florida is a winter resort for many people not only from the United States, but also from foreign countries. If a Japanese garden was going to exist in Florida, and if many people with different cultures were going to experience it, the garden would have to have a universal essence; it could not simply be a pretty picture on the wall. Also, like Sukeji Morikami's life, a Japanese garden in Florida would have to blend with the environment and the community. From this point of view as a landscape designer, I felt a tremendous challenge for the new millennium; in my heart inspiration had ignited.
Design Process
Regarding construction and landscape design in general, Florida's laws are some of the toughest and most detailed in the world. For example, Florida's construction regulations require every structure to be virtually hurricane-proof. Every joint must have hurricane straps made of unsightly metal plates, fastened with bolts. In the Morikami Japanese Gardens, where carpentry such as gates, shia, and bridges showcase the traditional art of Japanese joinery, the government requires hurricane straps on all carpentry. These straps are not only an eyesore, diminishing the beauty of the carpentry, but are structurally unnecessary; the nature of Japanese joinery to give under stress such as high winds, actually renders it stronger than any rigid metal support.
Another example of the strict regulation of Florida's construction laws pertains to guarding against the vacuum and lifting power of hurricane winds as well as horizontal force; posts 8 inches in diameter (such as those found in the shia or gates) must be buried in a hold 2 feet in diameter, 4 feet deep, and set in concrete. The environmental factors of bugs, heat and humidity leave little choice of suitable wood for building besides native cypress or pressure-treated wood. Consequently, in order to obtain a permit to use Japanese cypress, extensive tests proving the longevity of the wood when exposed to South Florida bugs and intense heat had to be submitted to the County. Under such conditions, it has been extremely difficult to design and gain approval.
Shoreline Regulations
Shoreline regulations are particularly strict; Palm Beach County requires all park slopes to be 4:1. For a Japanese garden, such a slope would be acceptable in select places, but most of the time it would destroy the effect.
ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)
According to the ADA, pathways must be exactly 20:1 degrees. The minimum curve of turn may not be less than 180cm (6 feet). Additionally, the ADA specifies that any interruption in the path may not exceed an inch.
On any feature of the garden raised above ground level, such as footbridges, the railings or barricades must not have openings larger than 4 inches and must be at least 48 inches high. Any wall facing a public street, even if it is a decorative wall, must have plantings along its full length. Such stringent regulations, which tend to diminish the beauty of the design and the designer's creativity, most likely exist in other parts of the world; I suppose that I am not alone in feeling discouraged. In order to execute the design intent under such restrictions, design/build is the only way. Determined to preserve the design intent, I insisted on creating the Morikami Japanese Gardens under a design/build contract. However, since the inception of Palm Beach County's government, there was no precedent for this; the idea caused much concern and fear. Finally, after many meetings and cooperation between knowledgeable parties, the County finally signed their first design/build contract. Now the garden is completed and as a result of the design/build method, the results are excellent. I am happy to see a win-win situation.
Design/Build Contract
As mentioned previously, there was no design/build precedent in County contracts. To deal with the situation, the County created an enormous document detailing every specific of the project. According to these specifications, the owner (Palm Beach County) is protected from any expense, including damage from natural causes, design changes necessary due to unexpected circumstances, or additional construction. In addition to this, the construction process had to adhere to a strict schedule. Any delay caused by the contractor (Kurisu International, Inc.) incurred penalties paid to the County. A per-day bonus for early project completion, which is normal for construction projects, was forfeited in the design/build contract.
Until a week before signing the contract, I was struggling to ensure even a modicum of freedom to alter the construction details in the County document. Finally, thanks to the understanding of the County Parks Director, we reached the following agreement:
"The Owner and Contractor understand that the nature of this garden project will require changes by the Contractor in the field which are not specifically indicated in the Plans. The plans indicate the minimum requirements and the Contractor is required to meet or exceed the plans as necessary to create an authentic Japanese garden. These changes many be, but are not limited to, the relocation of materials, changing of grade, re-arrangement of features after initial placement, addition of material, enhancement of material, or substitution of material in order to make the project and authentic Japanese garden. The costs of these changes are the responsibility of the Contractor, unless the Fixed Price of the Contract has been changed by Change Order. The Contractor shall notify all Subcontractors of the nature of this project and that the Owner will not consider additional compensation for the Contractor for itself behalf of its Subcontractors for field changes directed solely by the Contractor. The Contractor shall provide the Owner with evidence of such notification."
As stated above, as long as the cost of construction remained the same or increased the project in value without additional charge to the Owner, design and construction could be changed. This special paragraph allowed me to sign the construction contract and proceed. I learned that with persistence, people can come to understand, and also paved the way for Palm Beach County to use design/build contracts again for special projects.
Despite clear disadvantages to the bidding system, the fact that it is so widespread makes the system almost impossible to amend. Another possible constraint is the government regulation that 16% of the total construction budget go to minority subcontractors and, of that 16%, 8% go to African-Americans. Although intended to ensure equal opportunity, such laws often hinder efficient construction when it proves difficult to find appropriate subcontractors among the relatively small number of minority businesses.
Hoichi Kurisu
Soaked in society's affluent materialism and increasingly boxed in to a systematized world, we too frequently succumb to the tendency to become immune to a simpler, more natural way of thinking and living. It is difficult, if not impossible, under such influences to know and experience reality. Our deeper desires, in spite of our accomplishments and possessions, remain often unfulfilled. Though sincere, we find ourselves preoccupied with or consumed by what are perceived to be modern society's legitimate and complex demands upon us, and thereby drawn away from cultivating humankind's more fundamental relationship with life, with nature, with how one perhaps used to - or might come to - think, touch, feel, breathe and live.
The development of the Morikami Japanese Gardens offers rich potential for thought and experience, an invitation to momentarily stop in our tracks while approaching the turning point of the 21st century and ponder anew what we are, where we've been, where we're heading. My inspiration in developing this site derives from two areas of firsthand experience: my background and formal education in Japan, including studying and visiting historic gardens there, and my subsequent transformation of thought resulting from living and working for 30 years in this country. The merging of these elements has led me to the conclusion that it would be insufficient merely to replicate several distinct Japanese period gardens here at the Morikami. Instead, I intend to draw from the essence of these famous individual gardens to create one garden, The Morikami Garden, for this age. Let me explain...
Throughout the past centuries in Japan many different styles of Japanese gardens have been created. They were brought forth in a variety of environments, in different societies, and as a result of diverse cultural influences, not only from within Japan, but also from foreign cultures. The Morikami Garden will consist primarily of the following: Shinden Islands, Paradise Garden, Early Rock Garden, Late Rock Garden, Flat Garden, Modern Garden and Contemporary Garden. Each of these gardens will embody the substance of ideas inspired by their unique counterparts in Japan without attempting to duplicate those gardens. Furthermore, without any seam between them, they will actually be one garden - The Morikami Japanese Garden.
My hope is that visitors will experience the garden from within this view of wholeness, of all in one; that they will let it speak to them of timeless ancient and contemporary truths, or rhythms, which provide therapeutic insights today; and that they will listen, - cherish and act on - the inspiration the garden imparts to them individually. There are, too, the specific historical and cultural elements represented by adapting some of Japan's most significant gardens to southern Florida's environment. But that aspect is the lesser, I feel not the greater enrichment the garden will offer guests.
Strolling through the pine forest, the bamboo grove, seeing the rock formations, arrangements of plants, cascading waterfalls; pausing to ponder upon the quiet surface of the lake and shoreline, little by little laying aside the chaos of a troubled world and gradually, gently nurturing the capacity within to hear a more harmonious, universal rhythm...exchanging burden, boredom, and despair with renewal, inspiration, and hope; or, from present joy, discovering and even greater capacity for good... this is the tremendous power the Morikami Japanese Gardens hold and can impart. My hope is that a visit to the garden will genuinely and deeply touch each individual's life; that progressive ideas will be born herein and action take root; and that the intuitive conviction of such enduring qualities as real beauty, love, health or wholeness, integrity, creativity, renewal, and selflessness will be strengthened.
We will have accomplished our goal, I feel, if visitors to the garden come away refreshed, feeling somehow better about themselves and their world, if they look forward to sharing their experience with others and coming back, perhaps bringing with them a friend. This will be the treasured, continuing, great gift of the Morikami Japanese Gardens to us all.
(January 2001)