THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019 // 7
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CLOSE TO HOME:
A SPACE OF BEAUTY
Portland Japanese Garden offers rare tranquility, solace
Here, human hands touched and manip-
ulated; shaped, crafted and designed. Here
is a refuge carved inside a major city of
“In Wilderness is the Preservation of the nearly a million people. One of the Long
world”
Beach Peninsula’s own, William Clear-
man, crafted wood here — delicate railing,
— Henry David Thoreau
o a large degree, I follow Tho-
curved wooden bridges, turned cedar caps
reau’s famous dictates much as a the tops of fences and railings, each splined
coyote travels after scent, nostrils with Japanese hand tools.
flared, eyes wide open. I
The garden introduces us to a
love the deep green
Mecca of subtle sophistica-
tion and beauty. Buddhism
blades, a clear brook run-
ning through with
and Taoism are per-
vasive religions in
the sensuous gur-
gle of sweet water
Japan, and in this
music. I love the
garden of won-
ders, an undefin-
size and girth
able Tao seeps
of a 1,000-
from the plants
year cedar, a
and land-
Western or
scaping and
Redwood.
from the cool
They don’t
damp earth
talk or walk,
of the Pacific
but certainly
Northwest.
they present
And I have lit-
an aura. And
tle doubt this
sometimes,
may be one of
something more,
the most exquisite
something that
gardens in America.
approaches magic.
Shut your eyes
We might call the
and listen. Remember,
garden a living sculpture,
as Thoreau put it, “It’s not
because every square inch
what you look at that
seems, well, sculpted.
David Campiche
matters. It’s what you
Dry streambeds
Koi fish at the Portland Japanese Garden. run wild with river
see.” A quiet spot in
a grove of great red-
stones, little round ones
woods is a haven of peace and tranquility.
that we might wish to stick in our pock-
ets. Pines shaped and contorted until their
So why was I so taken, almost smacked,
by a manicured garden in Portland, there,
limbs illuminate haunting silhouettes, del-
icate sculpted shapes that sends our imagi-
behind the Rose Garden (no slouch itself)
nation reeling. All the while, songbirds dart
in the West Hills overlooking Rip City?
through, their tiny songs, beacons of joy
The Portland Japanese Garden, to define
and hope.
the place, nestled into an artistic landscape
Koi slow-float through waterways, their
like quail eggs tucked safely inside a woven
fins delicately dancing through quiet cur-
grass nest.
By DAVID CAMPICHE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
T
David Campiche
Pond and flowering trees at the Portland Japanese Garden.
rents. The atmosphere seems cloudlike,
their black and orange body paint exudes
nocturnal amblings, dreams to come.
The garden is littered with uniquely
shaped stones, big and small. They squat
like frozen stone soldiers, like a small army
of guardians.
The gardens and the forest of home are
uncommon sanctuaries. Most of the old
growth has been shaved by chainsaws. At
the Japanese Garden, you stumble upon an
artist with tweezers and scissors who trims
miniature Bonsai trees or picks buds from
twig-like limbs. These miniature plants and
trees seem to express the same invigorat-
ing stranglehold as a 300-foot Redwood.
Herein lies the miracle.
A walk through an ancient forest can
unleash your senses. Drive to Portland’s
West Hills and free your imagination.
Remember, it’s not what you look at the
matters, it’s what you see. Thank you, Mr.
Thoreau.
The Portland Japanese Garden, 611
SW Kingston Ave., is open Mondays from
noon-7 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tues-
day-Sunday. For more information visit, jap-
anesegarden.org or 503-223-1321 CW