Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, the official Kentucky-Japan Friendship Garden, is located in

Georgetown, Kentucky Georgetown is a home rule-class city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 37,086 at the 2020 census. It is the 6th-largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the seat of its county. It was original ...

on the north fork of Elkhorn Creek. The

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

is designed to have the appearance of a Japanese style strolling garden.

History

The community Japanese Friendship Garden was built in 2000 as a project between the local citizens of Georgetown and the citizens of Georgetown's sister city, Tahara in Japan. Local landscape architects Steve Austin and Jeff Singer helped design and build the garden, incorporating the Bluegrass landscape with the features of a Japanese strolling garden. The Kentucky legislature designated Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, the "Official" Kentucky-Japan friendship garden.

Features

The Yuko-En on the Elkhorn garden features the traditional elements of a

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 desi ...

with plants and landforms native to Japan and Kentucky. The site's flat land was converted with 1400 truckloads of earth into gentle rising hills with gravel paths and arched bridges leading through a

water garden Water garden or aquatic garden, is a term sometimes used for gardens, or parts of gardens, where any type of water feature is a principal or dominant element. The primary focus is on plants, but they will sometimes also house waterfowl, or orn ...

, a Zen rock garden, and past the banks of Elkhorn Creek. The Tokugawa Gates at the entrance to the garden depict the

Tokugawa Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

era in the form of Medieval European castle gates. A zigzag path leads into the garden through a patch of native cane. The Tahara Snow Lantern and

Maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

grove are gifts from the citizens of Tahara. The Maple grove includes species from America and Japan. A

koi pond Koi ponds are ponds used for holding koi carp, usually as part of a garden. Koi ponds can be designed specifically to promote health and growth of the Nishikigoi or Japanese Ornamental Carp. Koi ponds or lakes are a traditional feature of Jap ...

is the central feature of the garden. Above the koi pond is the Upper Waterfall and Mountain. This feature depicts

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

s along Elkhorn creek with the cone shaped mountains representing the island of

Yakushima is one of the Ōsumi Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of 13,178. Access to the island is by hydrofoil ferry (7 or 8 times a day from Kagoshima, depending on the season), slow car ferry (once or twic ...

, where streams flow down the mountain. The Kazan Sculpture/Tahara Waterfall Garden area has a sculpture of a young

Watanabe Kazan was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class. Biography He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in Edo (now Tokyo) to a poor samurai family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the ...

, a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman. The Elkhorn viewing hut is a log structure that is similar to local log buildings in form, but differs with its triangle cut logs representing the treasury building in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

. The Zen rock garden, best seen from the Elkhorn Viewing Pavilion, has patterns created by local volunteers. The Arched Bridge, painted Japanese red, goes over a dry rock stream that represents streams flow down volcanic peaks in Japan.

Gallery

Image:Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Tahara Snow Lantern.jpg, Tahara Snow Lantern. Image:Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Upper Waterfall and Koi Pond.jpg, Upper waterfall and Koi pond Image:Log Hut at Yuko-En on the Elkhorn.jpg, Elkhorn viewing hut Image:Yuko-En on the Elkhorn, Zen Garden.jpg, Zen Garden

References

External links

Yuko-En on the Elkhorn web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yuko-En On The Elkhorn Georgetown, Kentucky Japanese gardens in the United States Gardens in Kentucky Protected areas of Scott County, Kentucky