Foreign-Born Japanese Garden Designer-Together with Own Hands and Land-

Jason P. van Herik
jp vanHerik Design
http://www.jpvanherik.com/




Miyagawa　I know that you are very busy appearing medis and frequent trip to the States so we appreciate that you have taken the time to do this interview. Can you please tell us. At first, please tell us how you started this business in Japan and the past 5 years of activities.

Jason　For the past 5.5 years I have lived and worked in Japan, minus the extensive travel. I started working in a large traditional landscape contracting company in Tokyo in the design department, and stayed on for just about 2 years. I started my own studio shortly after.

I studied under Mother Nature and renowned Japanese Landscape Architect Makoto Katsuragawa（桂川真）;
he is a very accurate measuring stick of the good and bad in design across all fields, without his ego overly interfering.
You will definitely see parallels or approaches to our work. I do not mean to sound pretentious, or in any way put myself on his level, but site is a major factor in our designs. And also our use of natural, organic, and sensible solutions to projects.

Most of my projects seem to come from past client’s word of mouth advertising, since I have absolutely no time to do sales. My projects and activities over the past years have been an absolute pleasure. My clients here and abroad have been most generous, granting me so much design freedom and trusting my rambling-on. I think the majority of my projects have been successful attempts at something new, and I even have had some clients survive my first designs and ask me for another.

Since childhood, I have always been a designer & builder of things, and Japan’s post WWII production turn-around history was definitely a huge draw to live here, Japanese traditional home construction was another, and finally came the Japanese Garden. For about a decade before my move, I consumed every available book on all these subjects, and had some import and native interpretation examples of gardens (however terrible) in the USA to further persuade.



Miyagawa　Were there a big gap in between the image of Japanese garden you had in the States and the actual image you felt when you visited Japanese gardens in Japan?

Jason　I expected before I got here, that the Japanese Gardens I admired in books were many 100s of years old, and would be disappointed when I got here with the current standards and trends. Generally speaking design-wise this held true, but the occasional very rare gem pops up and gives me hope for the future. But I often suspect they won’t survive the decade, since everything seems to get stomped out by new buildings with larger footprints.

My time here has shown and taught me many things, but mainly in regards to Japanese Gardens what I have learned is that a Japanese Garden is a thing that most people never truly come to understand. This includes most garden designers and natives; and most often in my experience, when designers claim to, they just copy and paste it all over again. To study and master a subject should create more questions, but I find that most devotees to the craft stop asking the questions, and continually use the old answers. We’ve got to grow, evolve and move on. Study, understand, and respect tradition and use it to create something specifically suited to the current time and place.


◇ Own Experiences and Design

Miyagawa　Seeing you design works makes me feel very fresh and comfort. Please tell us your design approach method.

Jason　I understand that you believe knowledge of the site is important to your design process. I also understand that you are involved in the construction of your projects on site.

My Garden Design approach is always a combination of steps: (1) response to site, (2) the users’ needs, and (3) what I wish to communicate or infuse in the design. All of these in equal thirds, but the last I think is why you said you feel ‘impact’ in my designs.

The ‘impact’ you mentioned comes from that it is a new thing born from an old thing. A visitor to my gardens often remarks to me on their familiarity. This I believe is because, I have studied the rudiments of Japanese Garden , but have begun to attempt to re-invent some ‘taken from granted’ assumptions in the field. You could compare it to an old pair of comfortable jeans, but with new colors, materials, and details – all for the sake of ‘new comfort’ or purpose.

The ‘comfort’ you mention is because I design for a specific place and time, and not an imposed style. I don’t want all attention on the garden; to me the garden is always a part of a much larger space, landscape or territory. My designs are often called ‘Japanese’, but I think that is mainly because the sites are often Japanese in nature. I rarely set out to create a particular garden style, it just is a result of the above 3 points. Picasso said, “There should be no style; it is not a question of style. Style only comes after you are dead”

As I mentioned, the site is vital to my approach, and I need to experience it; to do this I repeatedly walk the site, and then have a meal and nap on most all sites before I design them. It seems then that the design or garden is uncovered from the site and only partially created. If I see a garden that stands out and commands complete attention, I feel that it has failed or should be quieter. In some or most ways the attention in a Japanese Garden should be directed inward toward the user. Also, in most all cases the garden should just be an extension of or an improvement of the site. In Carl Jung’s words ‘the best creations conceal their efforts of creation.’


◇ New Field and Its' Design Approach

Miyagawa　Lately you have been desining beyond your filed such as wooden fuyrniture, wooden toys and ecological products. Please tell us your new activities.

Jason　With my increasingly unfocused portfolio, I still always introduce myself as a Landscape Designer, always including the accepted English definition of Landscape – ‘a portion of a territory that can be viewed at one time from one place.’

The intersection of different ideas from different fields is mostly where creativity is born. I have been involved in design across many fields for most of my life – invention, interior, product, architecture, Landscapes, gardens, graphic, sculpture….. My approach to them is generally the same, just the materials and client needs seem to change, but even this is quite minimal. Understanding and defining purpose becomes the challenge.

Over the past few years I have begun to approach all projects of different fields with the same confidence. I enjoy hearing people recognize a chair of mine when all they knew was my Gardens. To me this means they see my design language and it has translated across fields. Also, I have gained a ton of confidence from persons like Ross Lovegrove, Zaha Hadid, and Shin Takamatsu, who have found an approach or grammar that applies across multiple fields. For them this has become strength and not seen as unfocused; hope I can pull this off one day soon.

I would like to mention that I can always build all my designs and usually to a major extent was involved in the process. The knowledge of construction is a valuable resource to any designer, of any field, they need to have; not novelty or brag rights, but working knowledge to grow from. My clients are usually shocked seeing me getting my hands dirty on site throwing dirt with a shovel, and this makes me sad; I hear of the great Ross Lovegrove carving his own chairs, and I think clients expect it of him. Legendary master carpenter / designer of Japan, Chuzo Tozawa（戸沢忠蔵） is another that comes to mind; If he didn’t make his designs they would not be worth as much. I think in ancient times, when the Famous Gardens, buildings and towns of Japan were built, it was the builder who had the greatest impact on a design’s success or failure, and this still holds true or should. Working with your hands is nothing to ever be ashamed of, and when I get to build something I designed, I find this the ultimate reward in my work.




◇ Global Sence and Original Idea

Miyagawa　We have introduced many Japanese youth challenging in the international field in this column. You have also been working abroad and please tell us what it means to you?

Jason　Working abroad is just a result of projects, and never gave it much thought, but now that you ask I will….. Only in Japan, have people commented on my abroad portfolio. The more important and common question from the locals abroad is, ‘have you worked in THIS country before???’ My situation is unique, for I represent 2 nations when I work abroad. I am from one nation and working out of another. Due to this, I can be and perhaps expected to be a bit more adventurous with my designs. I am committed to my designs and they must be of my idea, and the nation is just another site.

I enjoy to work outside of Japan, but never expect to build the things I do here, there. I accept the building and business ways of the place and design considering these points. I use local techniques, materials and approaches joined with my design experience to create new things. It must be balance between teaching and learning, and who is doing it – an exchange. You must prepare to surrender some things and be prepared to learn, and if they are willing to listen, teach – but no compromises. We should always learn and grow, because the world doesn’t need any more export flimsy designs of existing gardens.

I don’t think one should represent their country as so inflexible that they need to copy and paste existing things. I can go on and on here, but simply, you got to take it to another level, for yourself and next generations here and abroad. Japanese import, or China’s and Korea’s export of Garden Design principles (depending on what history you read) was undeniable key to the profound development of the great ancient Gardens in Japan. What a tragedy for everyone if they only recreated replicas here of existing gardens. Some accounts claim, but many disagree, that the first Japanese Gardens of Kyoto were replicas, but I think this is again the lack of understanding of what I mentioned before on Japanese Garden design. Whichever the case, we must appreciate the risks these people took to try something new. These unknowns are the people I like to consider when I approach projects.

One odd thing, I often find myself saying this is how we do it in Japan; I usually get some funny reactions. I mean I have achieved some recognition here and abroad that I am the Non-Japanese designer of Japanese Gardens for the Japanese, but people still expect me to say this is how we do it in the USA. I sometimes forget I am not Japanese when discussing work. Is this OK? Have I crossed some line that cannot be undone….


◇　Your Dream and Message to Future

Miyagawa　Thank for sharing your interesting story with us today. Please tell me your dream and a message to our readers.

Jason　For many years, my dream has been to design a public park on the moon or another planet. I have recently been in discussions regarding the Landscape Architecture aspect of a much larger space-tourist resort exhibit project with a Japanese Architect, and some seriously driven investors. The exhibit will have animation, models, plans, budgets, schedules and some interesting surprises. If it goes well, it should be on exhibition in the next 2 years. My renewed dream is to see it built in my lifetime. I look forward to working with the locals, selecting materials and moving soil in a foreign atmosphere. “Sorry Mr. xxxx I can’t have a meeting tomorrow, I have to visit the job site on Mars. How about Thursday, when I am back in Tokyo?”

My message to the reader is another quote. It may not directly relate to Landscape Design, but it is so powerful.

“Over billions of years on a unique sphere chance has painted a thin covering of life complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile; suddenly we humans, a recently arrived species, no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature, have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power; we now wield the paintbrush.”

---Pr. Paul McCreedy