O-Mo-Te-Na-Shi No NIWA: The Japanese Hospitality Garden

Project year: 2018
Posted: 05 Jul, 2018

Awarded

Gold Award

Sponsor

Cat’s Co. Ltd

Details

The Japanese designer is renowned for his vibrant style and breath-taking gardens and 2018 was no exception, with his O-motenashi-no Niwa Garden winning Gold and Best Artisan Garden.

‘Motenashi’ means hospitality; the garden is meant to be welcoming and inviting. The design is a celebration of Japanese hospitality, but its also about welcoming people in to come and enjoy the plants and the sounds of the water.

The beautiful ‘Azumaya’, or garden house, is an octagonal shape with a copper roof. The building has 8 sections or segments, separated by beams. Eight is a lucky number in Japanese culture, which symbolises a bright future and a continuing/expanding life.

The planting in the garden is based on Ikebana, a traditional form of Japanese flower arranging which dates back to the 15th century. Ikebana focuses on how the individual stems and branches fill and fit into the space around it, and the way that the plants are cut. We were very proud to donate our Weathered Limestone Rockery, Natural Grey Paddlestones, Scottish Beach Cobbles and Reclaimed Yorkstone Flags to the O-Motenashi-No Niwa garden. As well as forming vast numbers of moss balls by hand, Ishihara’s talented team also hand-painted each of the stones at the front of the garden, to make them look glossy and wet.

Products used:
Weathered Limestone Rockery
Grey Paddlestones
Reclaimed Paving
Scottish Beach Cobbles