Dr. Eva Paur, Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft, Karlsruhe
JGarden Description:
Karlsruhe is a city of 300,000, located 50 mi south of Heidelberg. The garden is located in the local community park and is one of the oldest such gardens in Germany.
This garden was originally constructed in 1913-1914. A Shinto shrine was added in 1927 and a 23-story stone pagoda, a gift from the City of Nagoya, was erected in 1938. The garden was damaged in World War II. It was rehabilitated and enlarged in 1967 for the German Garden Exhibition held in Karlsruhe that year. Ownership of the garden was transferred in 1994 by the German-Japanese Society of Karlsruhe. Since then, the group has planted several cherry trees and camelias. The garden continues to be maintained by the City's garden office (Gartenbauamt, Lammstr.13)
You enter the garden through a red Tori, wander along a small river to a pond, where you can have a rest in a little pavilion next to the source which feeds the pond. At the far end of the garden you find a Shinto shrine guarded by to koma-inu (lion-dogs). Across a footpath at the bank of the Stadtgarten-lake there is a kare san sui stone garden. One visitor's favorite place in the garden is next to an large, old maple tree (acer palmatum), planted in 1914.
It has been said that there are landscapes one can walk trhough, landscapes one can walk throug, landscapes which can be gazed upon, landscapes in which one can dwell… Those fit for walking through or being gazed upon are not equal to those in which one may dwell or ramble. Kuo His painter, Northern Sung
http://www.djg-karlsruhe.de/htm/japanInfo/Japangarten/Impressionen/Index.htm 