WIT Life #276: San Diego’s San-Kei-En garden
Art, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.
My interpreting gig continues westward, and I am currently with my interpreting clients in San Diego. It was my first time here in a while, and I was looking forward to seeing what Japanese connections awaited. As a result, I was happy to have some time in between appointments to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park with my group. It’s official name is 三景園 (“San-Kei-En”), which means Water, Pastoral and Mountain. San Diego’s sister city in Japan is Yokohama, and the garden was designed to be an expression of the ties between the people of the two cities. Its gate is dedicated to Charles C. Dail, the former Mayor who began this sister city program in 1957.
Classes offered at San-Kei-En include ikebana, origami, bonsai and tea ceremony. The original Japanese tea house in Balboa Park had an interesting story. It was built for the Panama-California Exposition in 1915, and when the city couldn’t operate it post-exposition a Japanese couple managed it until 1941. When the U.S. entered World War II that year the couple was interned, and the teahouse was left to deteriorate. It was finally razed in 1955 to make way for a zoo, and then rebuilt in 1990 along with the garden. Renovation is currently taking place at San-Kei-En to develop all of its 11 acres, and some new features will be a traditional teahouse and an outdoor amphitheater. It is expected to be completed in time for the centennial celebration of the Panama-California Exposition next year.
Though relatively limited in size in its current incarnation, San-Kei-En has lovely walking paths that take you past a bamboo scoop with water basin, a koi pond, a small rock garden and an exhibit area that currently features wire bonsai designed by the artist Olivier Chupeau. His unique metal trees are really interesting creations and will be on display until October 26, so make sure to check them out if you find yourself in San Diego this fall!
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