Hakone Gardens is an traditional Japanese garden in Saratoga, California, United States. A recipient of the Save America's Treasures Award by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it is recognized as one of the oldest Japanese-style residential gardens in the Western Hemisphere. Notable features include a bamboo garden, a Zen garden, a strolling garden (the Hill and Pond Garden), tea houses, and the Cultural Exchange Center, which is an authentic reproduction of a 19th-century Kyoto tea merchant's house and shop.
History
In 1915, two San Francisco arts patrons, Oliver and Isabel Stine, intending to build a summer retreat, purchased the site on which Hakone now stands. Inspired by the Panama–Pacific International Exposition and her subsequent 1916 trip to Japan, Isabel Stine modeled the gardens upon (and named them after) Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. She hired Japanese landscape artists and architects to design the gardens (credited to Naoharu Aihara) and the Upper "Moon Viewing" House (credited to Tsunematsu Shintani). Construction proceeded between 1917 and 1929. In 1923, the west coast premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly was held in the gardens; Isabel Stine was a co-founder and patron of the producing company, the San Francisco Opera.
In 1932, ownership passed to financier Major Charles Lee Tilden who hired landscape gardener James Sasaki and added the main gate to the gardens. When he died, Hakone was inherited by his sister, Mrs. Walter Gregory. After her death in 1959, Hakone was left untended, and the property was put up for sale by her son.
In 1961, Joseph and Clara Gresham, their son Eldon and his wife Deon, and four Chinese American couples (George and Marie Hall, Johnny Kan and Helen Kan, Dan and June Lee, Col. John C. Young and Mary Lee Young) purchased the estate. This partnership restored Hakone, keeping its traditional Japanese authenticity while using it as a private retreat. In 1966 the partners offered Hakone for sale to the City of Saratoga. By purchasing the property, Saratoga saved it from potential redevelopment.
Design
Gardens
There are four principal gardens at the site:
- The Hill and Pond Garden
- The Zen Garden
- The Tea Garden
- The Bamboo Garden
Of these, the Bamboo Garden is the newest, completed in 1987; the other three date back to the original construction commissioned by the Steins, with the Hill and Pond Garden the oldest, completed in 1918.
The Hill and Pond Garden features a waterfall emptying into large koi pond with an island accessible via bridge. It is considered to incorporate elements of both Chisen-shuyu (pond) and Chisen-kaiyu (strolling) gardens.
The Tea Garden is patterned after a typical Roji (Tea House garden).