A Japanese garden was installed around 1930 next to what is now the Muscatine Art Center. This photo was taken shortly after its completion. Photo: Muscatine Art Center
Writer: Beth Cody
A stone lantern marks a quiet path. Moss-covered rocks appear ancient, as if placed by nature. At their best, Japanese gardens feel like poetry you can walk through — peaceful, balanced and timeless.
Japanese gardens are widely admired for their beauty and tranquility. Their exquisite arrangements of rocks, water and plants are known worldwide for promoting well-being and offering a place for quiet reflection.
Although there is no single definition of the style, most Japanese gardens represent natural landscapes with rocks, evergreen trees and other plants, and water or symbolic water elements. Rocks signify gardens’ ancient spiritual origins, while traditional lanterns and bridges can be added to evoke Japan’s history and culture. Overall, the style favors subtlety and harmony over grandeur, whereas Western gardens focus on colorful flowers and plants.
The first Japanese gardens appeared in the United States in the late 19th century, when a few artists and travelers began replicating what they’d seen abroad. One early example was a residential garden in Minneapolis built around 1890 by artist John Bradstreet, who had visited Japan to import Asian art.
Many Americans first encountered Japanese gardens at World’s Fairs, where they appeared as part of international exhibitions. The style gained broader recognition after the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, where millions of visitors, including many Iowans, toured two spectacular examples: the fair’s Imperial Japanese Garden and another in a section called “Fair Japan.”
In the years that followed, dozens of Japanese gardens sprang up across the United States, particularly on wealthy estates on the coasts and around Chicago. A Japanese garden artist named T.R. Otsuka, who settled in Chicago after the 1904 fair, designed at least a dozen private gardens in the area and probably created the first one in Iowa, for the E.P. Eastman family of Burlington. The Eastmans had attended the fair and installed a Japanese-style garden on their estate around 1910. A 1913 magazine described the garden in detail, but it disappeared soon after.
No other Japanese gardens are known to have existed in Iowa for the next two decades. While the style gained popularity in other parts of the Midwest during the 1920s, it faded among wealthy trendsetters as middle-class homeowners began embracing the look.
Another Japanese-style garden was created in Iowa around 1930, when Laura Musser McColm of Muscatine, who likely attended the 1904 World’s Fair, commissioned a garden on her estate. The design closely resembles Otsuka’s other works, although no construction records have been discovered.
A few more Japanese gardens were built in Muscatine during the 1930s, plus another one mentioned in a Davenport real estate listing. But by the end of the decade, geopolitical tensions intervened.
As Japan’s aggression in China escalated in the 1930s, American interest in Japanese gardens waned. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Japanese gardens were removed, vandalized or quietly renamed as “Chinese” gardens. McColm’s garden was eventually inherited by the Muscatine Art Center and has survived as a rare and graceful example from before the war. In 2023, it was carefully renovated to match its original design.
The recent restoration of the Muscatine Art Center’s Japanese garden was made possible by a grant for historic preservation. Photo: Muscatine Art Center
After the war, Japanese gardens made a comeback. In the 1950s, the U.S. government promoted cultural exchange to help rebuild relations with Japan and counter the spread of communism. These efforts included the Sister Cities program, which paired Des Moines with Kofu, Japan, in 1958. The following year, after typhoons devastated Yamanashi prefecture, Iowa’s sister state, Iowa farmers sent hogs and corn to help. In return, Yamanashi gave Iowa a beautiful bronze “Bell of Peace and Friendship,” which now hangs in a small shelter on the Capitol grounds. The bellhouse and surrounding landscape were redesigned in 1968 by Siberius Saito, a Japanese American architect practicing in Waterloo, who had also created a small Japanese garden in that city’s Washington Park.
In Waterloo’s Washington Park, a Japanese-style shelter was built in the 1960s and is slated for a $100,000 restoration in 2026. Photo: City of Waterloo
Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, local garden clubs and home shows promoted the style. In Des Moines, a 1957 home and flower show included a Japanese display garden. Five years later, the show’s centerpiece featured three Japanese-style gardens designed by a local landscape architect. Garden club talks and how-to books brought the style to even more Iowans.
Real estate ads and garden tours from the ’60s and ’70s show a growing number of Japanese or “Oriental” gardens in Iowa towns. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that a large-scale public Japanese garden was finally built. Between 1994 and 2003, a two-acre garden designed by landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu was developed at the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
A small bridge spans a stream at the Dubuque Arboretum. Photo: Wikimedia
Des Moines eventually gained its own Asian garden along the downtown riverwalk. Built between 2004 and 2009, the Robert D. Ray Asian Garden and Chinese Pavilion was designed by Iowa State University architecture professor Paul Shao. His longtime dream of giving a Chinese-style garden to his adopted country found new momentum when the garden was renamed to honor Gov. Robert Ray, who had helped welcome 40,000 Southeast Asian refugees to Iowa in the 1970s.
The Robert D. Ray Asian Garden takes visitors along the Des Moines River, with paths featuring stone pagodas, waterfalls and a shaded pavilion. It was named to honor the former Iowa governor who helped welcome 40,000 Southeast Asian refugees to Iowa in the 1970s. Photo: Duane Tinkey
Today, Iowans can explore public Japanese-style gardens in several cities or add their own touches at home — perhaps a backyard koi pond or a quiet corner with moss and stone. The list of notable private gardens has included the Bettendorf garden of Jim Weerts, also designed by Kurisu, in 1995, and the Indianola garden of bonsai masters Alan and Helene Magruder, featured in the inaugural issue of this magazine in 2012.
Bonsai masters Alan and Helene Magruder created their own private Japanese garden for their home in Indianola. We featured it in the inaugural issue of this magazine in 2012. Photo: Duane Tinkey
Even as political tides have shaped the history of Japanese gardens, the impulse behind them has remained constant: a deep love for natural and artistic beauty. In Iowa, those values still flourish peacefully among rocks, lanterns and trees.
The Japanese Friendship Bell on the Capitol grounds in Des Moines. Photo: Duane Tinkey
Where to see Japanese Gardens in Iowa
Des Moines’ State Capitol Grounds The Japanese Friendship Bell stands on a hilltop near the Judicial Branch Building. Its surrounding garden, redesigned in 1968, offers skyline views and a quiet spot to reflect.
Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens The two-acre Japanese Garden and Koi Pond offers a tranquil setting of waterfalls, bridges and carefully composed natural elements. Open daily from 7 a.m. to dusk; admission is free.
Muscatine Art Center This city-owned museum’s Japanese Garden was beautifully restored in 2023 and received an award from Preservation Iowa in 2024. Open to the public, even when the museum is closed.
Waterloo’s Washington Park A section of the public city park was designed by architect Siberius Saito and features an open-air Japanese-style shelter. Admission is free.
Beth Cody of Ames is a garden historian and writer whose books include “Iowa Gardens of the Past: Lost & Historic Gardens of Iowa, 1850-1980” and “T.R. Otsuka: Japanese Landscape Artist in the American Midwest.”
