Scott and Lilly made the short drive to Long Beach to their old school (CSULB). They spent a nice morning at the Japanese Garden on the Long Beach campus. Enjoy!
This time on Scott’s Adventures, we’re going to go visit the Japanese gardens at Cal State Long Beach. Should be really [Music] fun. Hello and welcome. We’re here at the Japanese Gardens at Cal State Long Beach. We’re going to walk around and uh see what’s what. Should be a really fun time. And not only are we going to visit a lot of plants and flowers, but Lily wanted to remind you that we’re going to vis be visiting lots of fish and koi and things like that. It looks like it’s um a fossilized plant, but is that a juniper? It’s actually alive. So, if I showed you this part, that looks like it’s dead, but it’s actually alive. Starting from the front gate, this helps create a separation between the outside world and the interior of the garden. The wall does not extend far, but the burm, which is a raised hill around the garden, creates a natural barrier. The first bridge that you encounter is the platform bridge. There are three bridges in the garden along with other sets of threes throughout the garden. We call the platform bridge a bridge because it allows visitors to see over the water. Even though it isn’t used to cross anything, Japanese culture has a tendency to use odd numbers over even numbers. as many of the even numbers have negative connotations. Black Rock Beach gets its name from the dark color that the rocks turn while they are wet. It also forms the first waterfall in the garden, although in an unconventional way. When it rains, as water from the hill behind Black Rock Beach, it cascades down the rocks, forming a third waterfall. The second bridge is the Crescent Bridge. A moon bridge forms a circle or moon with its reflection in the water. And traditionally, it would be a half circle instead of a lower crescent. However, for accessibility, it was chosen to be a crescent. Designing a full moon bridge has the advantage of allowing passage of small boats underneath it while minimizing the lateral space needed to reach the necessary height. However, this can make some bridges difficult to cross, making ascending and descending more akin to climbing a ladder than walking up a bridge. The Japanese gardens encompass 1.3 acres. It was dedicated in 1981. Ed Lavell, landscape master plan architect for the university, traveled to Japan and took inspiration from the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo before designing the garden. Following the left path leads to the tea house. Traditional tea houses are separated from the main house. This is to create a sense of peace and separation from the distractions of the rest of the world. Tea houses would be located some distances away, sometimes separated by forest to isolate it. This effect is replicated with a tree line behind the rest of the garden. Down the path from the tea house is the rock or zen garden. Though the garden three elements are featured earth, plants and water despite there being no water used in the Zen garden. The rocks represent islands with the plants on them represent forest. The water is represented by gravel between the large rocks with this pattern forming oceanike waves. Gravel is also used as it is easier to maintain and less affected by weather. The last bridge is a zigzag bridge. This bridge is designed as such to help the viewer focus on different aspects of the garden with each turn both ways providing different perspectives of the garden. Sometimes these bridges are designed without railings to focus the attention of the walker on the current place and time. The main feature of the garden is the koi pond. Koifishs are subspecies of carp originally domesticated for their colors in East Asia around the fifth or 4th century BC. Koi arrived in Japan around 100 AD with some of the colors common today, but specific breeding for colors did not start until the 1820s. There are several different species of koi differentiated by their color patterns. Koi breeding usually callulls out non-colored or non-desired patterns of koi and if left to breed on their own will eventually return to a more natural brown carp color. They usually grow to 3 ft in length and on average live for 50 years, although the oldest confirmed koi had lived to 226 years old. To tell the age of a koi, you have to look at the scales since they grow like a tree does. You can count the number of rings. However, this damages the koi, so it isn’t done while they’re alive. They’re quite hearty, typical of carp as well, and can handle a fairly wide range of water temperatures, eat a wide range of foods, and are generally resistant to many pesticides. Looking around the gardens, it looks like several people have different ideas about what they like to do here. Some people are just relaxing and reading. Others are just meditating. Others are just walking, having a conversation. It’s a great place to just come by yourself or with somebody that uh you’re close to, walk around, just get a peaceful, easy feeling, and enjoy the wonderful environment of the Japanese garden. The large tree in front is a Chinese flame tree, driving its name from its occasional transformation, where its leaves turn a bright red, making the tree look like it’s on fire from a distance. While it may seem odd that there is a Chinese tree in a Japanese garden, this is actually relatively common. Japanese gardens originated from gardens in China or from Korea. So many of the plants used were incorporated into Japanese [Music] designs. Some of the main design principles of the garden are number one concealment. The garden shows one area at a time, allowing the garden to have multiple landscapes but making visitors discover others as they walk the garden. Two, borrowed scenery. A lay layering effect is used in the design of the garden, creating the feeling of a much larger space by utilizing features beyond the garden. I know when we visited this it was probably the second or third time I’d been here and uh it looked a lot smaller because maybe there weren’t very many people there or just maybe it was overcast. I don’t know but it seemed a lot smaller. Uh I remember it being much bigger than this. So that must be the uh borrowing scenery and the layering effect that they uh they intended. The third one is asymmetry. Japanese gardens are not symmetrical, which helps create a more natural flow to the garden. Behind the gates are two kanu or lion dogs, typically in a pair. The two are meant to ward off evil spirits with one having its mouth open and the other closed. [Music]
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