Exploring Kotani-En: A Hidden Japanese Garden & Bonsai Treasure in Los Gatos, CA – Baikoen Bonsai

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In this episode, we visit Kotani-En, a breathtaking historic Japanese garden tucked away in Los Gatos, California. I was contacted by Charlie Nguyen, the new owner of this remarkable property, who invited me to come take a look — and I’m so glad he did!

Not only is Kotani-En a beautifully preserved slice of Japanese culture, but Charlie an accomplished bonsai artist also has an incredible bonsai collection that perfectly complements the serene surroundings. This video offers just a small glimpse of what this amazing location has to offer.

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Well, YouTube family, join us today as we go visit Kotan in Las California. [Music] the history of it. All right. Hi, Tom. Welcome to Kotanian. Uh, Kotanian is a very classic Japanese garden that was built almost uh uh over 100 years, 104 years ago. So, there’s a lot of history about the garden and u I’m welcoming you to the garden. Um, show you the tour. Awesome. By the way, my name is Charlie Win. Recently retired. So, this is my full-time job. So, um when what’s the name of this garden again? Kani N. And then who actually developed or designed this garden originally? Well, the original owner is Mr. Cohen. And for whatever miracle or whatever happened, he met the Mr. Takushima who happened to be an architect from Japan. but end up being a sushi chef in Arizona. So they met and they decided to build this garden. It started in 197. Awesome. Let’s talk about this gate really quick. Any uh some some history or some ideas or some insight about this gate? Well, I don’t know much about the history, but normally, you know, for a Japanese property like this one that was built to reflect the 13th century resident of a samurai, uh there’s a house and a garden associate together. So, to enter the property, you go to a gate and normally the gate is like this. Uh it has two main doors but at the same time it have this very low door uh for owner. So the reason the door here is too low because as an owner when he come in he got to bow. Ah so it basically to be humble. It remind him to be humble. Awesome. and this just opens up into this. Yes. Courtyard basically like most Japanese garden or property in the own day there is some kind of kind of like a foundation stone and this is the foundation stone. Uh and it was right in the middle of the walkway here. So it’s remind people to take it easy, slow down, right? You know, every Japanese garden normally you enjoy better when it’s quiet and it’s sort of like contemplation, you know. Uh it’s not like other garden that you rush in, you see all this flower, you know, Japanese garden is more put you on contemplation mode. time you see there’s a shrine or you know sometime you know some article called a temple uh I read somewhere that this shrine is actually resemble one of a very old temple in Kyoto I I don’t have a record of it for sure but I read it somewhere u but it’s just a smaller size um and in that there’s a status of this uh uh lady that my understanding is she is one of the 10 god that Japanese uh worship so that he can ban it right you can see the curve Yes. Yeah. You got into the tea house, you have to go across this bridge. And this bridge is actually cross a natural brick. Uh and my understanding of the Japanese garden design is you know it it’s like you know before you got into a tea house you get into a separate kind of wall you know um and also it’s make the garden like much bigger than it is. Um so in the tea house normally before the guest coming in they would sit over here in this corner here and wait for the owner to open the door and then they will walk across the bridge to go in there for tea and construction. So they just use all right welcome to the tea house. So we call a tea house but actually in the old day people in Japan actually leaving a house like this. It basically have uh three part uh kitchens and this is the main part of the house. It serve both as a living area uh to receive guests, dining room and also you know become a bedroom at night. And then on the right side is uh it’s um a half bath basically have a sink and toilet because back then you know for sanitation purpose bathroom should be away from the living quarters. So this is how it look inside. [Music] [Music] This is the uh koi pond. Uh when I purchased the property, the pond was uh not working at all. It’s leaking. So I I need to repair that and bring in fresh water from the creek. So the koi are doing very well here even though I don’t have any children. And just like uh you know most Japanese garden uh the koi porn have something they call a turtle island you know so it have a shape like a turtle and then on top of that is a very old Japanese black tie right uh and then there are two water fountains the main one is over here and another one is by the corner next to the temple. So the sound is definitely wonderful. [Music] [Music] [Music] And then uh well yeah how do you get into bonesai Charlie? This is this seems seems a little intense. You didn’t do this for the first this is not the first year right? No no no no. I I I’ve been doing bonsai for like 20 plus uh 25 plus years and I actually learned it from one of my neighbor uh when I was in Maryland. Oh yeah, he’s uh he’s a Japanese man, old man. And uh it’s just wonderful to see his little tree and then when I moved to California, I just pick it up and you know turn it into my passion. So this is a great uh collection that you have here. It’s amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Go for it. I made this one probably like seven, eight years ago. And what is it? Uh this is a Japanese black pie as a forest. Yeah. I purchased a whole bunch of little but very old uh Japanese black pie from a gentleman who happened to be father of one of my friend. Um so and all these three actually he told me he grow from seed. Oh wow. Oh, so they’re old cuz they look at the barage on these things. And that’s why it’s quite old. And when I purchased, I have no clue what I’m going to do with it. So, it took me a while to think out and put it into a forest. And then I put this big heavy rock in the middle to give it some, you know, natural feeling of a forest. So, yeah, that’s awesome job. I mean just sourcing and then composition that that’s that’s tough especially a black pine that’s that’s tough. Another funny thing about this forest is uh it have eight trees. Oh it have eight trees because uh I have seven siblings. Oh good meaning on that one. There’s good meaning but somehow one tree never it keep dying doesn’t matter how many time I try you know. So it’s it’s always seven. Oh, do you have It’s still in there, right? It’s even there. It’s still eight. It’s still at there finally. So [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Sorry, let’s try this again. Thank you, Charlie, for inviting us over. Your garden is amazing. Thank you for inviting us and hope you guys like this video. Well, thank you for coming and hopefully when people seeing it, uh, it will be a bit surprised because there is such a little Japanese garden that not many people know. [Music] [Music] [Music]