Seiwa-en, the Japanese Garden

The name of the garden is Seiwa-in, Seiwa-in means garden of pure, clear harmony and peace. This garden is meant to be very naturalistic, it is meant to be a place where we can go and seek refuge. This garden has been here since 1977, it's a 14 acre Japanese garden. One of the design principles of this style of garden is called hide and reveal and the principle requires obscure views as you're walking along the path so that as you make a turn you'll be exposed to a different view, a different vista. What you see in the garden is meant to suggest more natural landscapes, more natural environments. You look at a waterfall and hopefully when you look upon a waterfall you imagine a much greater, a much larger landscape. As far as the island is concerned, this one is Crane Island. One of the distinguishing characteristics of this island are the two pines that are planted to extend over the water and those are meant to suggest the wings of the crane in flight. Every stone got in the middle, it's called Paradise Island, considered the central part of our garden, the heart of our garden. Tortoise Island on the south end of the lake and it has a stone that is set into the island that suggests the head of the tortoise with stones on the side and in the back to suggest its legs and tail respectively. The dry landscape is a type of garden where the planted areas, the trees, the stones and the shrubs are meant to suggest islands and the patterns that you see around those islands are meant to suggest the waves of the ocean. There's a lot of animal life in this lake. We have a lot of koi, a Japanese carp, colorful fish. We have three snow-viewing lanterns, two from the 1904 World's Fair and the third snow-viewing lantern is from St. Louis' sister city, Sewa, and it's on the water's edge at Teahouse Island. I'm particularly fond of the fall season and also the winter season. Winter, it's very stark but yet you can still see the architecture of the garden and the architecture of the plants, particularly after a snowfall. When you see the grounds and the trees just covered with snow, it's just a beautiful sight. It's as if everything is sort of bejeweled.