Mitsui Sen Japanese Garden
Overview
The Mitsui Sen Japanese Garden in Veresegyház is a small public Japanese garden created in 1984 in front of the medical clinic, near the town’s central crossroads. It was designed by Mitsui Sen Izumi, the Japanese sculptor who lived in Veresegyház, and made together with stonemason Fekete Mihály. The town’s official page lists Japánkert (1984) among Mitsui Sen’s public works in Veresegyház.
History
Mitsui Sen Izumi settled in Hungary after living in Italy and became closely connected with Veresegyház from the early 1980s. A municipal commemorative publication states that he had been creating work in Veresegyház from 1981, and that in 1983 he made the Japanese park in front of the central medical clinic, a place especially liked by children coming from the nearby school. A contemporary newspaper article from 1986 dates the garden’s design to 1984 and describes it as being made for the area before the medical clinic.
By the late 2000s the garden was described locally as neglected, although still remembered as a genuine small Japanese garden. A 2008 local article identifies it as a hira-niwa style garden made by Mitsui Sen sometime in the 1980s, and quotes the artist’s intention that patients arriving at the clinic could rest on the flat stones instead of waiting only in the clinical interior.
The garden was later restored. A 2018 municipal report states that the Japanese Garden was completed in 1984 at Veresegyház’s most important crossroads, as the joint work of Mitsui Sen Izumi and Fekete Mihály; it reached its final form in 2017 under the direction of head gardener Kisák Péter, and a commemorative plaque was inaugurated in January 2018 in honour of Mitsui Sen’s work.
Design features
The garden was described in 1986 as a calm spatial labyrinth with sitting stones, rocks, gently flowing water sources, an artificial bridge and special planting. Later local descriptions identify it as a hira-niwa, or flat garden, intended as a quiet waiting and resting environment beside the medical clinic. It is therefore best recorded as a small modern Japanese-style civic garden rather than as a large strolling garden.
Garden elements
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant public Japanese garden in the centre of Veresegyház. It was renewed in 2017, received a commemorative plaque in 2018, and remains used as a small civic garden and event location.