Ōmi no Niwa
Photo: Salino01 / CC BY-SA 3.0, modified.
Overview
The 1990 Japanese Garden in Würzburg is Ōmi no Niwa, created as the contribution of Würzburg’s Japanese partner city Ōtsu to the Landesgartenschau Würzburg 1990. WürzburgWiki identifies the garden as the partner city’s garden-show contribution, while Nakane Garden’s own project list records “Wuerzburg City Omi-no-niwa Japanese Garden” as a design and construction project.
History
The garden was created in the context of the 1990 Bavarian State Garden Show in Würzburg, held from 27 April to 21 October 1990. The exhibition’s aim was to connect the Main river meadows with the Marienberg fortress area and extend Würzburg’s green ring landscape west of the Main. After the show, the grounds continued as public parkland, because occasionally garden exhibitions leave something more useful than brochures and municipal optimism.
Ōmi no Niwa was the official garden contribution of Würzburg’s partner city Ōtsu, whose historic province name Ōmi gives the garden its name. The design is attributed to Japanese landscape architect Shiro Nakane, and the Nakane Garden project record lists Würzburg Japanese garden design work in 1988 and Ōmi no Niwa design / construction supervision in 1989, leading into the 1990 opening for the Landesgartenschau.
This entry should be kept separate from the smaller Zen Garden at Kranenkai / Neu Ōtsu, which is also linked to Ōtsu but belongs to a different site near the Alter Kranen. Würzburg therefore has two related Japanese garden records: the larger Ōmi no Niwa on the former Landesgartenschau grounds, and the smaller urban dry garden at Kranenkai.
Design features
Ōmi no Niwa is a public Japanese garden within the former garden-show parkland. It is generally treated as a traditional Japanese-style garden associated with Ōtsu and Nakane’s professional garden practice. The precise design vocabulary should be recorded cautiously unless using a detailed plan, but the garden belongs more to the public strolling / landscape-garden tradition than to a small dry courtyard garden.
Garden elements
Bridges
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Ōmi no Niwa is a public Japanese garden within the former garden-show parkland. It is generally treated as a traditional Japanese-style garden associated with Ōtsu and Nakane’s professional garden practice. The precise design vocabulary should be recorded cautiously unless using a detailed plan, but the garden belongs more to the public strolling / landscape-garden tradition than to a small dry courtyard garden.