The Japanese Garden

I already wrote about the strong japanese Community in Düsseldorf in earlier posts and today I want to write about one of the gifts they gave to this city.The Japanese Community collected 1,9 million German Marks in 1975 and built the 5000 squaremeter big Japanese Garden in the Nordpark.

Check out some General Info and Pictures after the Jump!

Düsseldorf always had a strong connection with the japanese economy and citizens.In 2008 were approximately 7000 Japanese citizens and 228 companies stationed in/around Düsseldorf.They had quite an impact on their surroundings as you can experience all throughout Düsseldorf.If you want more general Info i recommend to read my other post called The Dengeki Daioh Trip.In 1975 the japanese Community decided to share a tiny bit of their homeland with us and hired the Japanese garden architect Iwaki Ishiguro to specifically design a small Japanese Garden for Düsseldorf in the Nordpark.Its a genuine designed garden and not a simple copy of an already in Japan existing one.Japanese gardeners regulary check and repair the garden to keep it in a top condition.

The general concept of the garden revolves around a pond with a little island and a symbolic port.This concept is called “Lustgarten” and would mean something like Garden of Lust/Joy. Oh boy,that sounds perverted ^_^ Its a rather small part of the rather big Nordpark but the most enjoyable part in my opinion.You can spot cosplayers from time to time here aswell as people enjoying the soothing atmosphere especially in the summer.I guess ive gotta take some figures here for future shoots.

I was a bit unlucky today and didnt have photoshoot weather.I still think that the pictures turned out nice.

The text says the following:

The Japanese Garden at the Rhein reflects the mentality,tradition and sense of nature of the japanese culture.While the design of european gardens deals with the conflict between humanity + nature and its domination,the japanese philosophy revolves around becoming one with nature.This is rooted deep within the various japanese religions that think of the nature as something holy.

This garden consists of the same components as the japanese countryside,namly mountains ( resembled by rocks) and water (often resembled by sand /rubble).The Isle in the middle of the pond is another important part of the japanese natureside and its mentality.The components of the “Japanische Garten am Rhein” are placed in a harmoincal way with the goal that the viewer has a closed perspective from any point of view.

The japanese garden belongs to the Garden of Lust : Sea-Island type and is only one example of the wide variaty of japanese gardens.This garden is specifically designed for europeans that dont have an understanding of japanese aesthetics.Visitors are supposed to feel like part of the nature instead of an foreign body that entered forcefully.

Visitors that allow themselves to immerse into this experience will gain insight into the Japanese View on the world that often favors the aesthetic-symbolic over the rational-logic