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Students From Hachinohe, Japan Visit the Garden

Posted by Portland Japanese Garden on
A group of students pose for a camera in a garden
Students representing different junior high schools in Hachinohe, Japan visited the Garden in May 2025. Photo by Portland Japanese Garden.

Special Visit Precedes the Tenth Anniversary of Return of Torii Gate Beams

On May 21, Portland Japanese Garden welcomed 13 students representing 13 different junior highs in the City of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. While Hachinohe, nationally renowned for its fishing industry and manufacturing sector, is sister cities with Federal Way, Washington, a special bond exists between their citizenry and Portland through the Garden.

In 2013, two nearly identical beams of a torii (Shinto gate) landed on the Oregon coast after having been washed away following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. After traveling 5,000 miles across the Pacific, these two crossbeams, known as kasagi, landed within 120 miles of each other less than one month apart. The leadership team of the Garden at the time, including Sadafumi Uchiyama, Garden Curator (2008-21; now Curator Emeritus), Steve Bloom, CEO (2005-24), and Dorie Vollum, Board President (2017-19; now Board Trustee) underwent a massive undertaking to return these crossbeams to their rightful home at Itsukushima Shrine in Ōkuki, a fishing village within Hachinohe.

A bright red torii gate against a bright blue sky
Itsukushima Shrine with its kasagi restored to their original place within the torii structure. Photo by Portland Japanese Garden.

Related: Read About the Years-Long Effort to Return the Kasagi to Hachinohe

While the students are of course aware of the impact the natural disaster had on their home, they are too young to have memories of it. Vollum joined Mayuko Sasanuma, Director of Cultural Programs, and Natsuko Takahashi, Japan Liaison Manager, to welcome the students for a quick talk about the Garden’s efforts to return the kasagi before giving a guided tour of the landscape.

A group of young students listening to a woman in a garden.
Dorie Vollum, Board Trustee (right) discussing the Tea House with visiting students from Hachinohe, Japan, as Mayuko Sasanuma, Director of Cultural Programs listens. Photo by Portland Japanese Garden.

“I think when something terrible happens, the best of humanity shows up,” Vollum noted during her informal presentation. “Although I was able to do something to give hope and to show friendship and respect to Japan, I also learned so much and received so much from the experience. It was a remarkable set of miracles, coincidences, and connections that had to happen for the kasagi to go home.”

Red crossbeams from a Japanese gate.
The kasagi were shown at Portland Japanese Garden before they were returned to Hachinohe. Photo by Jonathan Ley.

2026 will mark the tenth anniversary of the ceremony commemorating the return of the kasagi to Itsukushima Shrine. Portland Japanese Garden looks forward to celebrating this milestone with its friends and partners in Hachinohe.