Last year I got a call from the Administrative Services Manager for the city of Dallas, Oregon. She explained to me how they were revitalizing the Japanese Garden that is part of large 35acre park in the city and wanted to commission 3 japanese style torii gates for the garden entrance. The original Japanese Garden was designed and built by Art Higashi in the 1960’s.
What an honour to be a part of this important city project recognizing the Japanese heritage of the area, as the garden was made not long after local Japanese families were released from internment camps after WW2. I designed the main torii gate that everyone walks under as they enter the garden on the simple Japanese torii gate, traditionally marking an entrance to a sacred space. It is not the same as traditional torii gates but maintains the same principles and becomes a hybrid version using recycled wood available here on the westcoast.
This gate is made from salvaged old growth red cedar driftwood, split by hand using a froe and finished with draw knife and sanding. The joinery for this large torii gate is held together with GRK structural screws of varying sizes and lengths. This was chosen for the ease of disassembling and reassembling the gate during transportation from Pender Island, BC where I live down to Dallas, Oregon where the torii gate was installed. The torii gate is 10′ tall and 11′ wide with posts roughly 6″x 6″. Finished with OSMO exterior UV protection oil.
The other two torii gates I made for the project are much smaller and designed to hold metal informational plaques, placed either side of the newly refurbished, traditional red curved bridge into the Japanese Garden. These two signs are also made from old growth red cedar driftwood I salvaged from the beaches around the Salish Sea. I split the wood by hand and used traditional wood joinery, finishing the wood with OSMO exterior UV protection oil. All of these torii gates sit on metal post saddles keeping the wood up off the ground and them securely in place.
Thank you to Jennifer and the city of Dallas for comminssioning my work, and congratulations on finishing this huge revitalization project of a beautiful Japanese Garden.
