Founded in 1848, Ueya Kato Landscaping Co. Headquartered in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, Ueyaka Kato Landscaping Co., Ltd. has been involved with many famous gardens over its 170-year history, including the Hojo Garden at Nanzenji Temple, which is designated a national place of scenic beauty; Shoseien Garden, an enclave of Higashi Honganji Temple; the garden at Chishakuin Temple in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, which is praised as the best in Higashiyama; and recently the garden at Hoshinoya Kyoto, the top brand of Hoshino Resorts, Ltd, In recent years, the company has been involved in the gardens of Hoshinoya Kyoto, a top-tier brand of Hoshino Resort, and other famous gardens. The company’s eighth generation is headed by Tomonori Kato, who also teaches at Kyoto University of Arts as a professor of Japanese garden design.
Landscape architects designing for ageing
Mr. Kato was born and raised in Kyoto City in a family of landscapers who create and maintain Japanese gardens, mainly for shrines and temples. Founded by Kichibee Kato I and serving as the official gardener for Nanzenji Temple, the company has been in the landscaping business for eight generations. Kato’s relationship with the aforementioned Nanzenji Temple is particularly deep. When Jiro was the fifth generation, he worked with his sons, Yasuoshi and Sueo, to create the western garden (Jyoshin-tei) and the northern garden (Rikudo-tei) facing the small hōjō, a designated national treasure at Nanzenji Temple, and when Yajusui became the sixth generation, he created the Kegon garden at the temple. It was only natural that Mr. Kato, who grew up watching the backs of his great grandfather and father, would pursue a career in landscaping.
After studying at Chiba University’s Faculty of Horticulture, he joined the family business and has been involved in landscaping ever since his 20s. Today, in addition to teaching garden research at Kyoto University of Arts, he gives numerous lectures in Japan and abroad and has received numerous awards, including the “Award of the Landscape Architecture Society of Japan,” which is considered the most prestigious award in the field of landscape architecture. He is truly an expert in his field who goes beyond the scope of his work and contributes to the development of landscape architecture in Japan.
Mr. Kato always keeps one thing in mind when engaging in landscaping. This is to maximize the individuality of the garden and design it to change over time. In addition to the traditional techniques of garden design and management that he has cultivated over generations as a landscaper in Kyoto, a city with many shrines and temples, he also actively uses CAD (computer-aided drafting) to design paving stone unit construction methods, which he uses not only in Japanese gardens but also in modern architecture.
Creating and nurturing. How the landscaping industry should be
Mr. Kato’s concept of “designing even the changes over time” mainly refers to the care of plants.
Mr. Kato defines this as “designing a garden from scratch,” and he believes that in the landscaping business, the importance of nurturing and managing the landscape over a long period of time, taking into account the importance of designing the garden space from scratch, is even more significant.
Incidentally, at Ueyakato Landscaping Co., we call the cultivation and management of gardens ”fostering”. The company calls it “fostering,” which is derived from the word “foster.” The company believes that “fostering the landscape is the true management,” rather than simply maintaining the appearance of the trees.
Rooted in the region where Important Cultural Landscapes are located
The gardens of Nanzenji Temple, which Ueyakato Landscaping Co. has been involved with since he was the first owner of the temple, are indispensable in the cultivation and management of Ueyakato Landscaping Co.. The garden at “Daneiken,” one of the non-public cultural properties that are not open to the public except for special openings, is a kaiyushiki style garden with a pond at the center, and is a unique example of a karesansui (dry landscape garden), in which stones and rocks are used to express the flow of water, and a simple garden with a pathway for entering a tea ceremony room, which is called a “kare-sansui” garden. Unlike open-air gardens, these gardens are rich in natural scenery with beautiful flowing water and plants. The garden has been cultivated and managed by Ueyaya Kato Landscaping Co.
Of course, Mr. Kato himself has been involved with Daneiken since he was an apprentice craftsman, and he has learned about plants and the nurturing of the natural landscape through the example of his predecessors.
The area surrounding Nanzenji Temple is home to many traditional architectural structures and beautiful gardens, so much so that the entire area has been selected as an important cultural landscape as part of the “Cultural Landscape of Okazaki, Kyoto.
One of the major reasons for this is the Kamichicho Ordinance, which was promulgated in 1871 to take away the fiefdoms of feudal lords and Hatamoto (feudal warlords) to bolster the strapped finances of the shogunate.
The vast estates of shrines and temples were taken away, and the grounds of Nanzenji Temple, which were approximately 200,000 tsubo in area, were likewise converted to public property. Aritomo Yamagata, who served as the third Prime Minister of Japan, built a villa called Murin’an, and in 1890 (Meiji 23), using the Lake Biwa Soso (Canal) that was drawn to the Kyoto side, he created a Japanese garden with a rich natural setting, adding a dynamic flow of water.
The people of the time were strongly attracted by the natural landscape, which looked as if it had been cut out of nature. This was the beginning of a growing demand in the area for what is now called “luxury subdivisions with modern Japanese gardens. The number of villas of wealthy people, including former zaibatsu families and presidents of major corporations, increased rapidly, and many gardens that would later be called famous gardens were created.
Mr. Kato has trained and studied in these places. He has gained a great deal of knowledge from his many years of experience, which is unique to the landscaping business rooted in this area.
Facing and leaning toward the individuality of the garden
That being said, there are many gardens in Kyoto that stand out for their individuality. Many of them were created by cultural figures from long ago as Kamigata, and there are as many originalities as there are combinations of cultures, topography, seasons, etc., according to the history of the area.
In some cases, the garden was created hundreds of years ago and the creator has already passed away, so he is often entrusted with only the cultivation and management of the garden.
In such cases, Mr. Kato tries to find the most beautiful time in the garden’s history from the time of its creation to the present, in other words, its “golden age. He considers what kind of golden age this garden had and how best to express and cultivate it.
Although there is no school of gardening like tea ceremony or ikebana, the lifestyle of each period is often reflected in the garden, and if one can read the intention of the garden, it will be easier to reproduce.
For example, in the Zen period, people favored a stoic, unadorned garden that reflected the philosophy of the time, while in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, people favored a grand, ornate garden to show the majesty of the powerful of the time. Of course, styles varied according to the sects of shrines and temples.
Taking these elements into consideration, I hear that inspiration comes from respectfully leaning on the work of our predecessors.
The mindset of “Anjojo Yoroshiku” passed down from generation to generation
How were these knowledge and skills handed down?
Mr. Kato has read and studied all the literature on landscaping, including “Sakuteiki,” the oldest gardening book in Japan, but the basic knowledge he has learned in the course of his work has remained unchanged since his predecessors and predecessors, and is mostly passed down orally.
For example, he learned from his predecessors, either orally or through gestures, how to prune a pine tree leaf in such and such a way that the leaf will open up during the growth process, and he put this knowledge into practice. During his apprenticeship, he was conscious of “learning from tradition and learning from fellow workers” as his keywords, and sensed by feeling what could not be written down.
In today’s society, one might say that it is outdated to work without clear standards, but he understands that this is true not only for the landscaping industry, but for Japanese manufacturing in general.
I have worked hard in my daily work, analyzing in my own way the “anjo yoroshu = finish the work in a good way” from my seniors.
Incorporating High Technology into Traditional Techniques, Japanese Gardens Go to the Future and Abroad
In recent years, the number of foreign clients has also increased. Nevertheless, this is not the first time that foreigners have become interested in Japanese gardens.
In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), João Rodrigues, a Portuguese missionary who was engaged in missionary work in Japan, wrote in his literature that he heard a phrase he heard when he visited a Japanese garden in Sakai, which he called “a yama-i in the city. He praised the Japanese concept of beauty, which was to create a garden in the middle of a large, prosperous city in the middle of a mountainous landscape that would give the impression of being in the middle of a mountain.
Even today, his sense of beauty is highly appreciated around the world, which is why he follows the teachings of his predecessors, reads the topography and direction of the land, uses local plants and trees in foreign lands where native Japanese species do not grow, incorporates the direction of the rising sun and climate, and creates Japanese gardens in pursuit of Japanese quality.
Although Mr. Kato values tradition in this way, he is not averse to modern technology.
In fact, the latest technology has brought some benefits to the landscaping industry.
For example, heavy machinery has made it possible to create gardens with a much smaller number of people and in a shorter time than before, and surveying equipment has made it possible to restore old gardens that were excavated with a high degree of accuracy, with less than 10 mm of misalignment after the removal and reinstallation of landscape stones. In the past, if even a single garden stone could not be perfectly restored to its original location, it would be considered “destruction of a cultural asset,” but by combining modern technology with traditional techniques, this problem can be solved.
Since it is now possible to do things that were not possible even for the famous garden masters of the past, such as Muso Soseki and Kobori Enshu, whom Mr. Kato admires and respects, I feel that even the most advanced technology is wonderful.
However, relying on state-of-the-art technology may lead to the loss of traditional techniques, and as long as I am involved in Japanese gardens, I would like to value the old techniques that were used before the era of rapid economic growth.
Passing Tradition and Know-How to the Future. Passing the baton to future generations.
Mr. Kato has always believed that “while respecting tradition, I also want to take on innovative challenges as much as possible. Mr. Kato always thinks, “While respecting tradition, I also want to take on innovative challenges as much as possible.
He believes that even if something is an innovative challenge today, if it is called a traditional technique 100 years from now, he will have left something behind for future generations.
It is important to completely burn oneself out as a craftsman, but it would be even better if one could pass on to future generations what one has spent a lifetime accumulating. Fortunately, an increasing number of young people are interested in the traditional industry and want to work in the landscaping industry.
While valuing the spirit of these 2021 craftsmen, we also believe that we need to update the system to make it easier for young people to understand in order to pass it on to the next generation, and the entire company is working on implementing the SECI model (a framework for sharing the knowledge and experience of individuals throughout the organization).
He is also working on implementing the SECI model (a framework for sharing the knowledge and experience of individuals with the entire organization) throughout the company. While saying, “Please take care of it nicely”, he is also conveying the traditional techniques, knowledge, and thoughts he has learned to young people today in a way that is friendly to them. He is committed to preserving the beauty of Kyoto’s unique natural landscape and historical culture for future generations.
