Bälz Japanese Garden

Karlovy Vary, Czechia Established: 1998

Photo: “Bi-Bi Japangarten” by Ĝù, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain, modified.

Overview

The Hana Bälz Japanese Garden is a small dry landscape / Zen meditation garden in Karlovy Vary. It was created in 1998 and named after Hana Bälz, the Japanese wife of the German physician Erwin von Bälz, who helped connect Japanese and European spa culture. The official Karlovy Vary tourism page states that the garden was ceremonially opened in June 1998 and named for Hana Bälz because of her role in bringing Japanese and European culture closer together.

History

The garden was founded in connection with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Erwin von Bälz. Bälz was invited to Japan in 1876, helped lay foundations for modern medicine there, and as a balneologist introduced Japanese audiences to Karlovy Vary. The garden commemorates this spa-cultural connection between Karlovy Vary and Japan, especially the relationship with Japanese hot-spring culture.

The initiative for the garden came from Masumi Schmidt-Muraki, a Japanese woman living in Munich. Nodaigarden records the site as Bälz Japanese Garden / ハナベルツ記念公園, gives the client as Masumi Schmidt-Muraki, the designer as Nomura Kanji, and the area as about 250 m². Other local cultural sources likewise state that Schmidt-Muraki initiated the project and that the design was by the Japanese architect / garden designer Kanji Nomura.

The garden was laid out in June 1998 by Japanese gardeners according to Nomura’s design. It is located near Parkhotel Richmond, along the Teplá River, at the end of Karlovy Vary’s spa spring line. The garden remains a small public meditation site rather than a large park or botanical garden.

Design features

The garden is a karesansui / dry landscape garden. White gravel symbolises the sea between East and West; one stone shaped like a ship points westward, and a smaller central stone allegorically represents Hana Bälz herself. The design is intended for meditation and symbolic reflection rather than strolling or tea practice.