ISAMU TANIGUCHI Biography - Architects, designers & engineers

 
 

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ISAMU TANIGUCHI

Isamu Taniguchi was born in Osaka, Japan, and by the age of 16 he   
was raising bonsai. He migrated to Stockton, California in 1915     
where he continued to farm for many years during which time he       
returned to Japan only once--to marry his childhood sweetheart.     
During World War II, he and his family were placed in a detainment   
camp for Japanese Americans. After the war he moved his family to   
the Rio Grande Valley where he continued to raise vegetables and     
cotton, but always made room for some flowers. He sent his two sons, 
Alan and Isumu, to the University of Texas at Austin. It was Alan   
who convinced his father to move to Austin upon his retirement in   
1967.                                                               
Taniguchi wanted to give the city of Austin a gift of an oriental   
garden. It would be his gesture of gratitude to the city that had   
provided an education for his two sons. The Parks and Recreation     
Department in conjunction with the Austin Area Garden Council agreed 
that such a generous gift could not be ignored. There was no         
contract, no design, and no blueprints of any kind because--as       
Taniguchi explains--gardens are not created by such methods.         
Instead, the plans for the Oriental Gardens existed only in         
Taniguchi's mind, in his soul and in his heart. He died in 1992.