As part of the North American Japanese Garden Association’s annual Gardens for Peace project, which brings communities together in Japanese gardens to promote peace, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is presenting free public programming in and around its iconic Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.

Stop by for free tours of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and a drop-in Japanese woodblock printing workshop with Sato Yamamoto.

The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Photo by Michael Stewart.

Japanese Garden Mini Tours

Tours run every five minutes between noon and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 8.

Meet at Duck Landing, next to Viewing Pavilion.

Enjoy a peaceful stroll through one of BBG’s best-known specialty gardens. These 20-minute tours highlight the Japanese garden elements in this historic garden designed by Takeo Shiota in 1914.

Drop-in Japanese Woodblock Printing

Stop by from noon until 2:00 p.m. at the Japanese Garden Viewing Pavilion

Try your hand at woodblock printing with Sato Yamamoto, a Japanese artist inspired by culture and diversity. Choose the Gardens for Peace pattern or other patterns by Sato and create your own print.

Gardens for Peace is free with admission to Brooklyn Botanic Garden. No registration is necessary to join the tour. To purchase tickets, please visit BBG’s website. Tours can be canceled due to inclement weather, so check BBG’s website for updates.

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Susan McCormac 9/18/23 Susan McCormac 9/18/23

TEA CEREMONY DEMOS AT THE MET

Tea Ceremony Demonstrations

Tuesday, September 26 at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – 1000 Fifth Avenue

Free with Museum Admission

Instructors from the Urasenke Chanoyu Center will demonstrate a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. There will be two sessions, one at 11:30 a.m. and one at 1:30 p.m. Each session will last one hour.

The demonstrations will take place in Gallery 209, The Astor Forecourt. For more information, please visit The Met’s website.

***Set of Utensils for the Tea Ceremony, Kubo Shunman 窪俊満 (Japanese, 1757–1820)***

Image: Kubo Shunman (1757–1820), Set of Utensils for the Tea Ceremony, Japan, Edo period (1615–1868), 1810s. Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper. H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (JP1974)

“Surimono” is a style of woodblock print that were produced in small quantities and particularly for private commissions. In this elegant still-life surimono by writer and artist Kubo Shunman, New Year’s tea ceremony utensils are arrayed with a branch of camellia, a flower associated with the end of winter and beginning of spring according to the lunar calendar.

Translation of the Poem on the Woodblock Print

At a tea gathering
on the day spring arrives:

Sipping auspicious tea
made with New Year’s water,
the tea ceremony begins—
as spring arrives before
the official start of the year.

— Kokin no Nakanari

(translated by John T. Carpenter, Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese Art in the Department of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

BBG TO HOST GARDENS FOR PEACE

Gardens for Peace

Japanese Garden Mini Tours

Drop-in Japanese Woodblock Printing

TEA CEREMONY DEMOS AT THE MET

Tea Ceremony Demonstrations

Translation of the Poem on the Woodblock Print

LEARN MORE