Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (Japanese Garden)

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a top visitor attraction, is more than 1,200 acres of gardens and tree collections, prairie and woods and miles of trails. As a premier northern garden, the Arboretum was borne out of the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center and established in 1958, with the Men's Garden Club of Minneapolis, Lake Minnetonka Garden Club, Minnesota State Horticultural Society and other community supporters creating the Arboretum as a gift to the University of Minnesota.

The Japanese Garden “Seisui Tei” or Garden of Pure Water reflects a style of Japanese Garden from the Edo Period (1603-1869). Designed by landscape architect Koichi Kawana in 1985, it is maintained under the direction of master designer, Dr. David Slawson. The garden contains some traditional design elements from the Edo Period such as granite snow lanterns, a garden house, water basin and entry gates. Seisui Tei contains 20 different kinds of trees, 24 types of shrubs and 3 different ground covers.|

It is an elaborately designed, intricate place that provides a calming atmosphere, inviting visitors to relax and reflect. Its focal point, a nine-foot waterfall, draws in and evokes the viewer's imagination. The Japanese Garden is about borrowed scenery and evoking nature's beauty. Nestled into a corner of the Arboretum's property, surrounded by mature trees, it is placed into a vista which expands the view and eliminates boundaries. It is accessible to the public and yet secluded so that visitors are able to find solace here, feeling embraced and protected within this garden. There is an alluring element woven into our Japanese Garden, the idea of 'reveal and conceal'. You can never see everything within the garden at once, different views are explored and created as you move through the garden. Each visit will show you something new that you may have missed before.