A Taiwan–Japan hybrid garden created with native plants

 

The Inner Garden invites visitors back to 1930s Taiwan under Japanese rule, tracing the stories of Japanese engineers who served in the Forestry Division of the Governor-General’s Office. Leaving their northern homeland to settle on this southern island, these engineers encountered climates and species vastly different from those in Japan. Beyond their plant survey work across Taiwan, they also applied their expertise to local flora, creating gardens behind their dormitories that evoked memories of home.

 

Built in the 1930s, the Forestry Division dormitory featured gardens in both its front and rear yards. The rear garden preserved the Zen-inspired aesthetics of Japanese landscaping, with carefully arranged stones reflecting the traditional philosophy of imitating nature. In collaboration with the Hsinchu Branch, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency and the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, the renewed design incorporates Taiwan’s native plants, including species documented by Yaichi Shimada, such as Common Swisscentaury Root, Kalimeris shimada, and Cirsium chinense.

 

The result is a contemporary Taiwan–Japan hybrid garden that integrates Zen sensibilities with the vitality of native ecology, reweaving cultural and botanical connections between Taiwan and Japan through the lens of plants.