The Japanese Garden – This Japanese-style Garden was designed by Hisaichi Tsugawa and built principally by members of the Japanese-American community of Oakland and the East Bay. It was dedicated in 1960.

Since 1985 the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club has been responsible for the restoration and maintenance of this garden, in cooperation with the City of Oakland Public Works Agency.

For inquiries regarding volunteer work/maintenance projects or donations, please call 510 418 0968.

Plum Branches accent new Japanese Garden gates.

Dick Austin, President Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt; Dennis Makishima, founder aesthetic pruning classes; Reverend Taniguichi; Bill Castellon, President Friends of the Japanese Garden; and Jay van Arsdale, artist.

Reverend Taniguchi sounded a bell chime, fluttered flower petals and  encouraged people to know this garden as a place of peace.

The voice of Reverend Zuikei Taniguchi, minister of the  Buddhist Temple of Alameda, sang out as he intoned a blessing during a brief ceremony to dedicate the newly finished fence and gates at the Japanese Garden in Oakland.

The event on Saturday July 6, 2012  marked  a celebration of the volunteers who worked on the 5 year long project and the funding sources who contributed financially.Some 25 people were present.

The Fence and Gate project was conceived by Dick Austin, President of  The Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt. Mr. Austin was instrumental in getting a $30,000 grant from the Creative Fund in San Francisco, and $14,000 in other grants from The Macphearson East Bay Performing Arts Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation, the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club Charitable Foundation and a sizable contribution from a private donor; the monies allowed the project to be completed within 5 years.

There are 3 new gates built in the traditional Japanese style and 250 linear feet of new fencing.  Jay Van Arsdale of Oakland, daiku, a wood working artist and instructor at Laney college, is the artist who designed and built the gates together with his group of volunteers from Merritt and Laney College classes.

Audrey Jones Taylor, Director of Oakland Parks and Recreation, was present to acknowledge the contributions of all the volunteers and to underscore  the city’s support of their efforts to beautify the gardens.

Plum Branches accent new Japanese Garden gates.

Carpenters in the Japanese (Daiku Dojo) tradition are true artists. Their joinery techniques and soulful appreciation of woods make them special within their craft, which has been honed and perfected over more than a millennium. The technique uses no power tools.

Jay van Arsdale, lead carpenter for the project and a Daiku teacher at Laney College (perhaps the only class in the world taught outside Japan) understands that the new fence is an extraordinary gift to the carpenters, Gardens and Oakland. “This fence exemplifies personal learning and community service. This is something the carpenters will show their grandchildren; it is their legacy,” said van Arsdale.

The Japanese Garden fence was made possible by a grant from the Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation, and support from the Friends of the Japanese Garden. Carpenters for the project are van Arsdale’s Laney College students. Van Arsdale has studied and taught Daiku Dojo for more than 25 years. For more information about Daiku Dojo, visit, www.daikudojo.org.

Dick Austin, Friends of the Japanese Gardens, and Jay van Arsdale, Daiku artist, stand between a recently completed fence section and the previous fence.

“Across the Bay, I discovered a hidden gem in the Gardens at Lake Merritt, in Oakland. I was greeted with soothing sounds from a koi pond fountain and a lush green backdrop of colorful flowers and soaring trees. Beyond the green oasis, sounds of rakes, hand shovels and conversation buzzed like an orchestra of goodness. More than a hundred volunteers worked, laughed and inspired one another.

Myriam Garcia and her two young children Max and Paloma, took a break to tell me why they spent their Saturday morning working in the community garden. “I came to beautify the city where I grew up, where I work. This is my community,” she says passionately.”   — Be The Change Day (Oct. 2, 2010) Coverage on Huffington Post

Jay van Arsdale and his students began

this phase of the project March 22 and

it looks like this a week later.

On Tuesday Dec 1 woodworking artist Jay van Arsdale and his crew arrived at the Japanese Garden to start work on the next phase of The Fence and Gate Project.
(Jay in the yellow hat)

Most of the wood work had been done in the classroom shop at Laney College, but some finishing touches were done on site in the parking lot.

These crafts people use hand tools, the ancient way of doing this joinery work.

December’s work on the project was to install sections of off-set fencing on either side of the gate which had been installed a few months ago.

Not your typical western style nailed fence, this is mortise and tenon work.

Branches from a Plum tree enhance the gate opening.  Sliding locks provide closure as needed.

Sliding lock on the inside of the small gate.

Sliding lock on the inside of the small gate.

From inside the garden, the structure handsomely masks the view of the parking lot.

The large gate can remain closed, blocking the view outside the garden, while the small gate provides pedestrian access. Not quite done yet, but a much needed improvement.

For more information about projects in the Japanese Garden,  please call Dick Austin, 418 0968.

For more information about the artists, go to <www.daikudojo.org>.

The Creative Work Fund is a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. A total of 17 grants were made for the 2008 – 09 grant cycle.

Here is the information about this grant from The Creative Work Fund’s press release:

Jay van Arsdale (Oakland) collaborating with Friends of the Japanese Garden and fiscal sponsor Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation

Jay van Arsdale, a master of traditional Japanese woodworking, and Friends of the Japanese Garden will design, build, and install 250 lineal feet of fencing, executed in the traditional Japanese method and style, to enclose and announce the presence of Oakland’s Japanese Garden near Lake Merritt. The Japanese Garden was designed and built more than 50 years ago primarily by members of the Japanese-American community of the East Bay. It fell into disrepair and, in the 1980’s, the Merritt College Pruning Club commenced a project to restore and maintain it. A dedicated group of volunteers has continued this work. Artist Jay van Arsdale will collaborate with them to enclose the garden with authentically detailed and styled Japanese gates and fencing. Also assisting will be Laney College Joinery class students and other volunteers. The son of a blacksmith and a fifth generation craftsman, Jay van Arsdale was introduced to his vocation 30 years ago at a demonstration given by a Japanese tea house carpenter. He followed the daiku (teacher) for a number of years, learning through observation and practice, and continuing later with other daiku when his original teacher returned to Japan. A long-time leader of workshops in Japanese joinery, in 1999 he began teaching the only college level courses in Traditional Japanese Hand Tools and Joinery outside of Japan at Oakland’s Laney College. Friends of the Japanese Garden is a volunteer group operating under fiscal sponsor Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation.