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Koi swimming near the Zig-Zag Bridge in the Strolling Pond Garden. Photo by Mike Centioli.

Koi swimming near the Zig-Zag Bridge in the Strolling Pond Garden. Photo by Mike Centioli.

Event

Daily Member Hours

Daily / 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Wooden bridge underneath a very green lush tree

Event

Painting with Thread: The Art and Culture of Fukusa

June 22 - September 18, 2024

Event

Behind the Shoji Summer Marketplace

June 29th - September 2nd, 2024 9am-7pm (W-M)

Event

Painting with Thread: The Art and Culture of Fukusa

June 22 - September 18, 2024

Event

Behind the Shoji Summer Marketplace

June 29th - September 2nd, 2024 9am-7pm (W-M)

Family time in the Garden

Tips for Visiting the Garden

Please be considerate of the Garden and of the Garden experience for all visitors.

Portland Japanese Garden on Instagram

Happy Sunday! Take some time for yourself today and listen to the cool, tingly sounds of our Natural Garden stream. The Garden is always here if you need a moment in the shade.

#portlandjapanesegarden #asmr #portland #oregon

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POV: You spend a Saturday at Portland Japanese Garden 🌿

#portland #oregon #portland #pdx #japanesegarden

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Come admire our lanterns to celebrate the centuries-old festival, Gion Matsuri!🏮

Guests arriving to Portland Japanese Garden this summer may notice a large lantern structure in the Atsuhiko and Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Foundation Courtyard of our Cultural Village. They are known as “Gion Festival Lanterns” and were first installed in this space back in 2018 when Portland Japanese Garden held an exhibition called “Gion Matsuri: The World’s Oldest Urban Festival.”

Gion Matsuri, a festival that started in the ninth century in Kyoto during Japan’s Heian era (794-1185), is a colorful and vibrant celebration that takes over the streets of downtown Kyoto each year in July. A month of ritual preparation culminates with a procession on July 17 and again on July 24 when elaborately decorated floats, called Yama and Hoko, are pulled through the streets. Our 2018 show exhibited one of the Hoko floats, Ayagasa Hoko, travelling all the way from Kyoto, marking the first time a Gion Matsuri float was exhibited outside of Japan.

During Yoiyama, the three evenings preceding the yamahoko procession, lanterns are illuminated in Kyoto neighborhoods. Not only are the lanterns displayed beside the floats, but each household also lights festival lanterns that hang under their eaves. These lanterns are called komagata chochin (koma-shaped lanterns). The name refers to the unique shape the lanterns create, which is said to resemble that of shogi (Japanese chess) pieces called koma.

The Gion Festival lanterns bear the crest of the sponsoring neighborhood, and those on view at the Garden in the Cultural Village were custom-made in Kyoto for the 2018 exhibition. They bear the stone lantern crest of the Portland Japanese Garden with “Japanese garden” in kanji on the back.

#portlandjapanesegarden #gionmatsuri #kyoto #festivallantern

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