Koichi Kawana ( Japanese: 川名孝一, born March 16, 1930 in

Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

– September 13, 1990) was a post-war Japanese American garden designer, landscape architect and teacher. He designed gardens in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

, and St. Louis, Missouri. Some of his major works include the

Seiwa-en Seiwa-en is a Japanese strolling garden located in the Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, Missouri, in the Midwestern United States. At 5 ha (14 acres), it is the largest such garden in North America. It features a large lake, modest traditiona ...

Japanese Garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden des ...

in the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million ...

, the

Hannah Carter Japanese Garden The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is a private Japanese garden located in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. Known as Shikyo-en when completed in 1961, it emphasizes water, stones, and evergreen plants. The naturalistic hillside site features stream ...

and a dry landscape garden at Sawtelle, Los Angeles. He designed the bonsai collection for the Pavilion of Japanese Art at

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 196 ...

in the 90s.

Biography

In 1930, Kawana was born in

, Japan. He graduated from Yokohama Municipal University in 1951 and got a US citizenship in 1971. Kawana became a college professor and lecturer for 24 years at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

on Japanese art, environmental design, and Japanese landscape/architecture. Dr. Kawana founded his own design practice, Environmental Design Associates, a Los Angeles-based design firm in 1966. Dr. Kawana died on September 13, 1990. Aside from lecturing at UCLA, Kawana designed gardens at several parks in the United States, mainly having a Japanese style.

Selected works

* Redesign of the

(Shikyo-en), 1969 *

Japanese Garden in

, 1977 * Sansho-En in the

Chicago Botanic Garden The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands in the Cook County Forest Preserves. It features 27 display gardens in four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shor ...

, 1972 * Shofu-en, the Garden of Wind and Pines, at Denver Botanic Garden,1979 * Suiho-En, the Garden of Water and Fragrance, at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, 1984 * Seisui-Tei at the

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a horticultural garden and arboretum located about west of Chanhassen, Minnesota at 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska, Minnesota. It is part of the Department of Horticultural Science in the College of Food, Agric ...

, 1985 * Sand and Stone Garden at the

Bloedel Reserve The Bloedel Reserve is a forest garden on Bainbridge Island, Washington, United States. It was created by Virginia and Prentice Bloedel, the vice-chairman of the lumber company MacMillan Bloedel Limited, under the influence of the conservation ...

, 1987 * Seijaku-En at the

Memphis Botanic Garden The Memphis Botanic Garden is a botanical garden located in Audubon Park at 750 Cherry Road, Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Botanic Garden is open to the public daily, where guests can take a stroll through various gardens on the grounds. There i ...

, redesigned, 1989 * Dry landscape garden in Stoner Park, Sawtelle. 1989 * Pavilion of Japanese Art bonsai collection at

, 1900

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawana, Koichi 1930 births 1990 deaths People from Hokkaido Japanese emigrants to the United States Gardening in Japan Japanese landscape architects American landscape and garden designers University of California, Los Angeles faculty Missouri Botanical Garden people