The Garden of the Phoenix, Official Site for Hanami, Shares 130 year of History with Visitors
Annual Hanami, or Cherry Blossom Viewing, festival was held on April 22 at Chicago’s official Cherry Blossom Viewing site, in and around the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park.
Over 170 cherry trees were planted in the garden and surrounding area on the south-side of the Museum of Science and Industry and across the lagoon to the east of the Obama Presidential Center currently under construction.
The Hanami festival was organized by the Japanese Arts Foundation in partnership with Japanese Culture Center, Chicago Park District, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago (JCCC), Consulate General of Japan in Chicago, Garden of the Phoenix Foundation, Japanese classical dance troop of Shubukai and Tsukasa Taiko.
Despite a frozen weather with hail, visitors continued to come to the Garden of the Phoenix and walk around the Japanese garden. Shubukai’s Japanese classical dance performance was surrounded by a crowd of people, and the members of Tsukasa Taiko performed Japanese taiko drumming for the opening of the Hanami festival in front of SKYLANDING, Yoko Ono’s sculpture.
To celebrate annual Hanami festival, Rosa Escareño, General Superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District; Michael Dimitroff, Manager of Art Initiatives; Karen Szyjka, Operations Support Manager; Stephen Toyoda, Director of the Japanese Culture Center; and Saira Chambers, Executive Director of the Japanese Arts Foundation attended.
Some tables were set for visitors to introduce Japanese culture such as origami and haiku poetry making.
Consul General Hiroshi Tajima
(Photo: Japanese Culture Center)
In his greeting remarks, Hiroshi Tajima, Consul General of Japan in Chicago, talked about the history of the Garden of the Phoenix where the Japanese Pavilion Ho-o-den was built and standing until 1946. He said, “The Japanese Pavilion was modeled after the World Heritage Site Byodoin Ho-oh-do or Phoenix Hall in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, and the name of this garden reflects that.” He continued, “This year marks the 130th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, and as Consul General of Japan, I am very pleased that this garden has become a symbol of friendship not only between Japan and Chicago, but also between Japan and the United States, and a place to enjoy the Japanese beauty.”
Consul General Tajima also explained about a Japanese tradition of hanami, saying “Cherry blossoms are the symbolic flower that heralds the arrival of spring, and many Japanese people take family and friends to Hanami, cherry blossom viewing during their short blooming period.
However, cherry blossoms were not in full bloom on the day of the Hanami festival due to warm weather in the middle of April. He said, “We hope to expect even better blooms next year. Please comeback to Jackson Park to see the cherry blossoms every year.”
The Garden of the Phoenix and Cherry Trees
Promise between Chicago and Japan
The history of the Garden of the Phoenix traces back to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. After the exposition ended, Japan’s government gifted the Ho-o-den to the City of Chicago as a symbol of U.S.-Japan friendship and a place to learn Japan and its culture. The City of Chicago accepted the gift and made a promise with Japan for permanent preservation of the Ho-o-den.
The Garden of the Phoenix is the exact place where the Ho-o-den was standing until it was lost to arson in 1946 and has reflected ups and downs of U.S.-Japan relations for 130 years. Especially, after the Ho-o-den was lost, the garden became a refuge for hundreds of variety of migrating birds.
After Chicago-Osaka sister-city relationship started in 1973, the garden drew people’s attention, and then the Chicago Park District, Japanese government and dedicated people have worked together to restore the garden.
Over 170 cherry trees were planted in 2012 and 2013 by the Chicago Park District with support from the Garden of the Phoenix Foundation and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago (JCCC).
The majority of the trees were planted in the spring of 2013 for the 120th anniversary of the gift of the Ho-o-den by the Japan’s government to the City of Chicago. An additional 50 trees were planted to commemorate JCCC’s 50th anniversary. JCCC is going to plant an additional 60 trees to commemorate its 60th anniversary and express the Japanese business community’s continued commitment to Chicago. JCCC will plant 20 cherry trees in three consecutive years starting from 2024.
As trees have grown during the past decade, along with the installation of Yoko Ono’s SKYLANDING, the Garden of the Phoenix has emerged as one of the most important sites in the nation reflecting the entire history of U.S.-Japan relations.
SKYLANDING by Yoko Ono, her only permanent work in the Americas, emerges from the ashes of the Phoenix Pavilion (Ho-o-den) Construction of the Obama Center can be seen over a pond behind SKYLANDING.
In 2016, SKYLANDING by Yoko Ono, her only permanent work in the Americas, emerged from the ashes of the Phoenix Pavilion which was lost to arson in 1946, following the end of the Pacific War between the United Stated and Japan. Ono’s vision is for SKYLANDING to invite visitors to enter the 12-patal lotus that rises from the ashes of the lost Ho-o-den and to realize that world peace begins within each of them.
When the visitors of the Garden of the Phoenix look back 130 years ago with the image of the Ho-o-den, they might imagine that young Frank Lloyd Wright was diligently sketching the Ho-o-den.
He was inspired by the Ho-o-den and established his own architectural style.
Tadao Ando, notable Japanese architect, was fascinated by the old Imperial Hotel designed by Wright when he was adolescent and then became an inventive architect.
Kulapat Yantrasast, who was raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, inspired by Ando and became a very creative architect.
Their stories with the Ho-o-den and the Garden of the Phoenix were written in an article of “Okakura, Wright, Ono and the importance of the Garden of the Phoenix, Jackson Park” by Robert W. Karr, Jr., President of the Chicago Shimpo. The article link is available here:
https://www.gardenofthephoenix.org/news/okakura-wright-ono-in-the-garden-of-the-phoenix-jackson-park
Garden of the Phoenix: A Gem to be Handed down through Generations
An Interview with a Chicago Park District Manager
Karen Szyjka, Chicago Park District Operations Support Manager
Karen Szyjka, Chicago Park District Operations Support Manager, has been involved in preserving and maintaining the Japanese garden in Jackson Park, known as the Garden of the Phoenix, for a quarter of a century.
This Japanese garden, with a rather amazing history that goes back more than 100 years, is a product of an old promise that has been kept by the city of Chicago to Japan.
As the Operations Support Manager, Szyjka is part of the ongoing effort of maintaining the beautiful and tranquil Garden that’s located at the northern portion of Wooded Island in the center of Jackson Park.
“A garden needs our loving care and appreciation in order to survive and thrive; just like human relations, a garden will respond to our commitment,” Szyjka said in an interview with The Chicago Shimpo.
In 1893, when the World’s Columbian Exposition (or World Fair) was held in Chicago, the government of Japan built the Phoenix Pavilion (“Ho-o-den”) on a plot in Wooded Island, just south of where the Museum of Science and Industry stands today.
The exquisite structure showcased Japan’s artistic heritage and housed exhibits to demonstrate Japan’s achievements as a newly emerging modern nation.
When the Exhibitions concluded, the Pavilion and the surrounding Japanese garden were gifted to the city of Chicago as a symbol of Japan-U.S. friendship. The site was also to be used as a spot for visitors to learn about Japan and its culture. The city, in turn, promised to preserve and maintain the site.
After going through difficult times during World War II, the Pavilion was lost to a fire in 1946 and the Japanese Garden was left in decline. A wholesale restoration of the Garden, now called the Garden of the Phoenix, was launched in the 1970s, and repair and restoration efforts have been ongoing since then. The following is the conversations between The Chicago Shimpo and Szyjka about her 25-year experience of taking care of the Garden of the Phoenix.
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Q: How did you get involved in restoration of the Japanese Garden in the first place?
Szyjka: I had my own landscaping business 25 years ago, and was taking care of a garden that was once located across the street from the Japanese Garden.
Around that time, the Chicago Park District was looking for someone who could help with the maintenance of the Japanese Garden. So I took the job and became a Park District employee. I didn’t know much about the Garden at that time.
Q: How did your interests and knowledge about Japan and Japanese Garden evolve through your work?
Szyjka: [After the Garden was named Osaka Garden in 1993 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Chicago-Osaka sister-city relationship], the annual Osaka Garden Festival was held at the Japanese Garden between 1998 and 2003. I took my young son there. That’s where I met Bob Karr, Jr., who was one of the organizers.
There was a small group of people who were passionate about the history and restoration of the Japanese Garden. They were instrumental in drawing public attention to the Garden through their personal connections. Bob led the group.
Bob taught me about the Garden’s history and its connections to the World Fair, Frank Lloyd Wright. I also learned about Shoji Osato and his family and what they did to maintain the Garden and the wartime internment of the Japanese Americans, which Osato experienced. As I learned those things, my interest and passion about the Garden grew.
Bob was instrumental in bringing SKYLANDING [the lotus petal-shaped sculpture by Yoko Ono] to be installed at the site where the Phoenix Pavilion once stood. At the opening ceremony, dancers who were related to Sono Osato, daughter of Shoji Osato and famed ballet dancer and actress in the U.S. and other countries, came to perform. It was magical.
I also came to know people of the North American Japanese Garden Association through Bob. That has deepened my understanding and knowledge about Japanese gardens.
Now I feel strongly that it’s my responsibility to make sure the next generation of caretakers will continue the legacy of the Japanese Garden.
Q: Was it difficult to convince the Park District administrators about the need of restoring the Japanese Garden?
Szyjka: The Park District manages many historic sites and works with community groups to honor the legacy of these spaces and features. As funding opportunities become available, the Park District solicits community feedback to inform project development and implementation.
It sometimes takes bringing people there [to the Garden] to see it firsthand, to take in the beauty of it. You can’t explain it to someone and expect them to truly understand it. So that’s what I did.
Once they come to the Garden, after a little bit of time, they would begin to understand and appreciate that it’s a special space which needs to be handled differently than other gardens.
Q: We understand you have done so many things to raise public interest in the Garden, such as inviting the media to the cherry blossom viewing (“Hanami”) event and talking about the Garden at every possible opportunity. The Garden had been neglected in the past, but it’s been repaired and polished so much over the past 25 years. What were the difficulties that you had to overcome?
Szyjka: Over the years, I’ve seen the public’s interest in the Garden grow and wane. It went from a lot of attention to no attention at all, and then attention came back again. It came and went in a cycle. That bothered me.
Working with the Park District to focus attention on the Garden has really helped the Garden, and helped me as well. It has also shaped my life.
Q: How has it shaped your life? How has your work with the Japanese Garden impacted you?
Szyjka: For one thing, I brought my son to the Osaka Garden Festival when he was a little boy. As a result, he developed an interest in Japan, including its culture and language. The Garden is a special place in his heart. He studied Japanese through high school and college, and visited Japan through a Japan-U.S. exchange program. He is 27 now and fluent in Japanese. I still have a picture of him in my mind as a little boy, sitting at a table outside the Garden during one of the sister city events. [In that picture,] he is drawing a picture of some Japanese kites, paying so much attention to it.
What he fell in love with was historical Japan, a country of Shogun and lords, and he was deeply disappointed when he visited Japan and saw how Americanized it was. His heart was broken. But he still has connections with his friends who are related to Japan, so I know that his love for Japan will come back somehow.
Q: What’s your connection with Japan?
Szyjka: I’ve never been to Japan, but I’ve always had appreciation for Japanese culture, its simplicity and elegance.
My father was in the U.S. Air Force and lived in Japan for an extended period of time. I was born in the U.S., but my older brother was born in Japan. He loved eating rice that my dad called him “gohan” [meaning cooked rice, or simply meal, in Japanese].
My mother said she continued to say “Moshimoshi” (“Hello” in Japanese) when picking up the phone in the U.S. There are so many stories like that in our family.
Q: You said earlier that you feel you are responsible for handing down the legacy of the Garden to the next generation. Can you elaborate?
Szyjka: I think about retiring someday, but I can’t just walk away from the Garden [without making sure that it will continue to be taken care of with love and appreciation].
In the past, we have had so many local contractors employed by the Park District who provided help in restoring, maintaining and rebuilding the Garden. They were the ones who came to help when a new entrance gate was installed thanks to a donation by the city of Osaka to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chicago-Osaka sister-city relationship. It was Mr. [Sadafumi] Uchiyama [from Seattle] who led the complete renovation of the ponds and stone settings in 2002.
Once such people fall in love with the Garden, it gives birth to their commitment to it, and that makes a huge difference in how the Garden is cared for. We have learned from them how to maintain it properly, not just according to our American ideas of what a Japanese garden is, but where the idea of the Garden came from, including love of nature and appreciations of everything around us.
I also think about the generations of kids who will come to the Garden.
A lot of children come to the Garden, American kids who know really nothing about the culture of Japan. They sit here and watch Japanese dance and music performances. It’s a place that helps bring them together. From the very beginning, the whole reason of this Garden was to share cultural significance of Japanese art and architecture. That’s the true history of the Japanese Garden, and it has to be carried on.
I love looking at old historical photographs we have of the Garden. The old pictures of the Ho-o-den convey the sense of its size, the presence it must have had. It’s overwhelming and breathtaking [to look at them]. Seeing those photos makes me feel how special and real the place must have been. Even though I don’t know what the whole place looked like back in those days, the old photographs tell me how it changed over time, and yet how much it has stayed unchanged. That deepens my sense of responsibility [to hand it over into good hands].
Japan has history that’s so connected to everything its people do, their art, their gardens, their way of treating others, and the way they work. This is such a small and intimate garden [that implicates such history], so it needs to be protected and managed in a way that will keep its intimate experience genuine.
What’s important about the future of this Garden is to have people here who know the history and can help others understand its aesthetic qualities and importance of every detail about it.
Q: Are you also responsible for taking care of the Rose Garden in Grant Park?
Szyjka: Yes, the North Rose Garden.
Rose gardens require a lot of care – they take a lot of pesticides and a lot of commitment and love. If you want to keep a rose garden, you must learn how to take care of it properly, and be ready to pass the knowledge down to others. If you are going to have a rose garden, you have to do it right. You can’t do it half-heartedly.
It’s the same thing with Japanese gardens. If you are going to have a Japanese garden, you have to do it right. You have to connect with people who know more about it than you do. You learn from them, and, in return, you share the knowledge with others. It takes your complete commitment.
It might sound silly, but when you give your love to a garden just like you give it to a person, it responds.
Q: Thank you very much.
(This interview was conducted in September, 2022)