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Japanese Garden

The City of Gardens Invites You to the Hatley Park Japanese Garden




The stroll from the castle to the Japanese garden takes the visitor down an open avenue to one of the most private parts of the grounds. A small arching bridge invites the visitor to cross into the serenity and beauty of the near century old garden. Stone-lined pathways, wooden structures, and lanterns thoughtfully placed throughout are structural elements that create a sense of continuity in the garden.

The sound of moving water allows the transition into the solitude of the garden to be more complete. The maturity of the plants in the garden has created hidden vistas that initially were only anticipated in the imagination of the garden’s designer, Isaburo Kishida.

Japanese Gardens were a fascination to Edwardian society. The construction of a Japanese Teahouse along the Gorge waterway would prove instrumental in the inclusion of a Japanese Garden at Hatley Park.

One of the partners in the Teahouse venture was Yoshitaro Kishida. His father, Isaburo Kishida, a Ko-en (park) designer in Yokohama traveled to Victoria in 1907 to create and install the gardens to accompany the Teahouse. Following this commercial endeavor, he completed three private commissions. Only the gardens completed for James and Laura Dunsmuir at Hatley Park and Robert and Jennie Butchart at Butchart Gardens remain.

Work on the Hatley Park garden is believed to have begun in approximately 1909 with completion the following year. Isaburo Kishida secured the authenticity of the first garden by importing plants and structural elements from Yokohama. The garden he created was a stroll garden. Arranged along the paths and beside the wooden structures were plantings of: Sciadopitys, Deciduous Azaleas, Prunus.

Hidden beyond a row of Pink Pearl Rhododendrons is the portion of the Japanese garden added two years later in approximately 1913 by the Boston Architectural Firm, Brett and Hall. Franklin Brett and George D. Hall were responsible for designing the Italian Garden and the Rose Garden which also remain on the grounds.