MEDIA ALERT
October 4, 5, and 6: Portland Japanese Garden Celebrates O-Tsukimi, the Moonviewing Festival
What: You are invited to experience the romance and mystery of O-Tsukimi, the Moonviewing Festival. Start the evening with a peaceful stroll through the lantern-lit Garden. Take in authentic Japanese music. Observe a quiet tea ceremony in the Kashintei Tea House. Enjoy a cup of sake or tea as you watch the harvest moon rise above the city. Dinner provided by presenting sponsor Bamboo Sushi.
Where: From Portland Japanese Garden’s (611 SW Kingston Ave., Portland) spectacular east-facing Overlook with a view of the city skyline below, watch breathlessly as the moon rises over the mountains and downtown Portland. Don’t miss this most magical of all evenings in the Garden.
In celebration of the Moonviewing festival, the raked gravel in the Flat Garden is designed in a special once-a-year checkerboard raking pattern; the alternating squares of white river gravel cast shadows in the moonlight and are said to resemble rice fields at harvest time.
When: While technically celebrated on jugoya, (the 15 night of the solar calendar), when the moon isn’t always full, the Garden is celebrating Moonviewing during the moon’s greatest moment of beauty: October 4, 5, and 6 from 6pm-9pm. This event will be held rain or shine.
View photos of the Moonviewing festival here.
Media Contact: Erica Heartquist, eheartquist@japanesegarden.org, 503.542.9339
Please no tripods or flash photography.
About the Portland Japanese Garden
This spring, Portland Japanese Garden, celebrated as one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside Japan, opened its $33.5M Cultural Village expansion. The expansion was designed by world renowned architect Kengo Kuma, who is spearheading the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Garden’s new Cultural Village not only provides additional space to accommodate its rapid visitor growth, but also – and most importantly – enhances its ability to immerse visitors in traditional Japanese arts and culture.
Inspired in the late 1950s by growing cultural ties between Oregon and Japan, Mayor Terry Schrunk and members of the Portland community conceived the idea of building a Japanese garden on the site of the old zoo in Washington Park. Their reasons for building a Japanese garden were twofold: providing the citizens of Portland with a garden of great beauty and serenity, while forging a healing connection to Japan on the heels of World War II.
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