The man behind the design of Seiwaen (Singapore's Japanese Garden)

Kinsaku Nakane on the left with his son Shiro on the right.

Seiwaen opened on 16 Feb 1973, the largest Japanese garden outside of Japan at that time. The garden was built on a man-made island in the middle of Jurong Lake, adjacent to Yu Hwa Yuan (Chinese Garden). Designed by Professor Kinsaku Nakane, Japan's leading landscape designer, the garden took four years to complete. Originally part of a swamp, the Chinese and Japanese Gardens are two of three man-made islands at Jurong  (the third one being Jurong Country Club... which is more of like an extension rather than an island).

This large strolling garden was constructed according to the gardening techniques that prevailed from the Muromachi Period (1392 - 1568) to the Momoyama Period (1568 - 1615). The architecture was based on post-war style.

Funding came from Singapore and Japanese governments as well as the local Japanese organisations at the cost of $3 million. The garden symbolises the peace and prosperity between Singapore and Japan. Notable landmarks are the 4 metres (13-foot) tall Kasuga stone lantern that overlooks a lake and Torii gates at the "guesthouse" building.

The garden was closed since 2001 and in 2003, after a review, closed for renovations and reopened on 15 July 2007. As part of the effort to re-invent itself, large amount of earth was brought in to terra-form the land; artificial hills were created.

Nakane passed away at the age of 77 on 1 March 1995 in Kyoto. Apart from designing gardens in Japan, China and in the West, he was the President of the Osaka University of Fine Arts and Nakane Garden Research, which is still in operation today with his son Shiro at the helm. [URL: http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~nakane/index.html]

The Tenshinen ('Garden of the Heart of Heaven") at the I.M. Pei West Wing, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, which was completed in 1987 was his most prominent work. Reminiscent of the gardens in the shogun estates of the Edo period (1603-1867), the Tenshinen incorporates symbolic details of the New England landscape (rocky coastline and deep forests) over which Nakane flew in a helicopter when he was formulating his garden plan. The Japanese garden at Jimmy Carter Library and Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia, was also designed by him.

The Tenshinen was re-opened on April 2015 after a year-long effort to restore the garden, and documented by the Nippon Television Network Corporation. In the course of the renewal, new plants, paving, irrigation, drainage, lighting, and granite gravel were installed.

In Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the Ju Raku En is a Japanese garden designed by Nakane with construction starting on 1983 and opened in April 1989. The 4.5 hectare garden is jointly own by University of Southern Queensland and the Toowoomba City Council, and is Australia's largest Japanese garden. It is located at the northern side of the campus.

Sources:
1. Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis, The Journal of Garden History, pp. 231-232, 30 Apr 2012)
2. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, http://www.mfa.org/collections/featured-galleries/japanese-garden-tenshin-en