The Japanese Garden is a 6.5-acre (2.6 ha) public Japanese garden in Los Angeles that is situated on the grounds of the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant next to Woodley Park in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. It is more specifically in the Lake Balboa neighbourhood of the central San Fernando Valley .
Suih en (), which translates to "garden of water and fragrance," is the name of the garden in Japanese. Donald C. Tillman came up with the idea of placing a Japanese Garden close to a water reclamation facility.
The goal of the garden was to show how recovered water could be used effectively in a Japanese garden, which is typically thought of as a delicate environment. [2] Ponds and irrigation in the garden use reclaimed water from the nearby water reclamation plant.
Dr. Koichi Kawana constructed the gardens, which were built between 1980 and 1983.
They were officially dedicated in June 1984.
The Japanese Garden was ranked 10th by the Journal of Japanese Gardening out of 300 public Japanese gardens in the United States.
When one first enters The Japanese Garden, they pass through a dry Zen meditation garden (Karesansui) with a big grassy mound that represents Tortoise Island, a representation of longevity, and a stone arrangement of the Three Buddhas (Trikaya).
The following area is a sizable chisen, or "wet strolling" garden, complete with lakes, trees, waterfalls, and stone lanterns.
The Shoin Building, which has a real 412 tatami (7 m2) tea house and associated tea garden, located at the end of the route.
