Work will soon begin on a new Japanese garden at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, B.C. TheVictoria-Morioka Friendship Society and the Vancouver Island Health Authority are involved and the new Garden is to be named the Inazo Nitobe Memorial Garden. Dr. Inazo Nitobe was a most distinguished and respected international statesman who died at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in 1933 after becoming ill while attending a conference in Banff, Alberta.

There will be two main designers. One will be Paul Allison, whose career includes working at Oxford University's Botanical Garden & who now teaches for several months each year at Tokyo Agricultural University and Seibold University in Nagasaki. The other will be Takashi Fujimura, a well-know designer from Morioka. Interestingly, there is, for Mr. Fujimura, a family connection - his grandfather took part in the original dedication ceremony for Dr. Nitobe's memorial stone, which was placed in the hospital grounds. The new garden will include this memorial stone.

One of the aims of the new garden design is that it should be therapeutic for patients, visitors and hospital staff.

I think it will be interesting to watch the progress of the garden construction. Meantime, here are some pictures of what the site looks like now.

Click here to see the 'before' pictures