Mitsui Garden Hotel Osaka Premier

Osaka, Japan

Photo © Koji Okumura

Landscape Architects: STGK Inc. | studio gen kumagai

Location: Osaka, Japan
Year: 2014
Architecture: D-Brain Institute
Artwork Collaborator: GELCHOP

Nakanoshima district in Osaka is one of the most important hub for international tourists and domestic business people visiting in Osaka area. In order to convey the hotel’s concept of ‘Japanese sophistication’, we created its garden with the theme of ‘Kaishiki’.

‘Kaishiki’ is a characteristic feature that is seen in traditional Japanese cuisine. Seasonal plant leaves and flowers are set aside the food to emphasize the seasonal sensation in a very subtle manner. For Japanese, admiring the change of seasons is a ritual celebration in their daily lives. Such ritual celebration can be seen in Japanese garden, Ikebana (floral art), and seasonal word in Haiku, etc.
In the garden, cherry blossoms, which inform the advent of spring, are ‘arranged’ in steel vases, rather than just ‘planted’ within the planted zone. In Japan, there are more than 600 different species of cherry trees, and in this garden each different species of cherry are carefully selected and planted. Other trees are also carefully selected in order to visualize move in nature, such as wind and sunlight through swinging leaves and flowers.
Along with this Ikebana-like planting, we have designed the pavement by re-constructing the traditional Japanese pattern. The random checked pattern is applied for the entire pavement and the plantation zoning. It has made the garden look modern yet traditional.
Capturing the fineness of nature and tradition in Japanese culture and re-interpreting them in present time has resulted in the expressing of the hotel’s fine hospitality.