Consul General Fujiwara’s visit to Cowden Japanese Garden (12th August 2022)
2022/8/22
On Thursday the 11th of August, Consul General Tadashi Fujiwara, on the invitation of Mr John Nicolson MP and Ms Sara Stewart, visited the Cowden Castle Japanese Garden in Dollar, Clackmannanshire.
The garden was the idea of Scottish adventurer Ella Christie who, deeply impressed by a Japanese garden she had visited in Kyoto the previous year, commissioned a Japanese female garden designer Taki Handa to design the 7 acre site in the grounds of Cowden Castle. A teacher at Doshisha Women’s College, Handa was studying at Studley Horticultural & Agricultural College for Women in the UK at that time.
Upon completion, the garden was regarded as “the largest and most important Japanese garden in the Western World” and was even visited by Queen Mary in 1937. However, after being vandalised in 1963, the garden gradually fell into disrepair. In 2008, the garden came under new ownership by Christie’s great-great niece, Ms Sara Stewart. From 2013, a project to restore the gardens was launched with the cooperation of Professor Shigeo Fukuhara of the Osaka University of Arts and, after successful restoration, the site was re-opened to the public for the first time in 60 years and is currently the largest Japanese garden in Scotland. Moreover, Ms Stewart hopes to expand her work through increased collaboration with the Japanese community in the UK.
Consul General Fujiwara, together with Mr Nicolson MP, took a walk with Ms Stewart, who explained the history and activities of the garden, as well as its status as a symbol of the historical connections between Japan and Scotland, on an afternoon that was conducted in a friendly atmosphere from start to finish.
The garden was the idea of Scottish adventurer Ella Christie who, deeply impressed by a Japanese garden she had visited in Kyoto the previous year, commissioned a Japanese female garden designer Taki Handa to design the 7 acre site in the grounds of Cowden Castle. A teacher at Doshisha Women’s College, Handa was studying at Studley Horticultural & Agricultural College for Women in the UK at that time.
Upon completion, the garden was regarded as “the largest and most important Japanese garden in the Western World” and was even visited by Queen Mary in 1937. However, after being vandalised in 1963, the garden gradually fell into disrepair. In 2008, the garden came under new ownership by Christie’s great-great niece, Ms Sara Stewart. From 2013, a project to restore the gardens was launched with the cooperation of Professor Shigeo Fukuhara of the Osaka University of Arts and, after successful restoration, the site was re-opened to the public for the first time in 60 years and is currently the largest Japanese garden in Scotland. Moreover, Ms Stewart hopes to expand her work through increased collaboration with the Japanese community in the UK.
Consul General Fujiwara, together with Mr Nicolson MP, took a walk with Ms Stewart, who explained the history and activities of the garden, as well as its status as a symbol of the historical connections between Japan and Scotland, on an afternoon that was conducted in a friendly atmosphere from start to finish.