Intercultural Understanding, 2015, volume 5, pages 21-27

Opportunities, Obstacles and Possibilities for Foreigners to Study
Traditional Japanese Gardening

Arno Suzuki1
1

International Education Laboratory for Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Corresponding author: Arno Suzuki, International Education Laboratory for Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University,
Kitashirakawa-oiwakecho, Sakyo, Kyoto, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan, E-mail: arno@sci.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Keywords: Japanese garden, Traditional industry, Practical training, Higher Education, International students, Mobility, License,
Work permit, Professional Certificate, The Way of Tea
Abstract: There are many Japanese garden enthusiasts outside Japan, and some of them are interested in working in the industry
and look for schools to learn the skills. The industry depends on internationalization as well. Japanese gardening, however, isusually taught first handed in apprenticeship rather than by lectures or textbooks because it requires improvised design-build
procedures. There are reasons why higher education institutions cannot provide practical education in this field. International
applicants therefore cannot find an authentic training opportunity and give up, or some of them are misled by an easier way. They
also encounter obstacles when they apply for a work permit because this field is not recognized by the government appropriately.
The language may be a barrier for some international applicants. The author suggests that higher education institutions may becomea bridge between those international enthusiasts to an authentic Japanese gardening practice as seen in some successful examples.

1. BackgroundTraditional Japanese gardens are still popular worldwide, andmany non-Japanese students and enthusiasts are interested incoming to Japan to study the subject. Some even wish to acquire
skills to actually create gardens for themselves or professionally.
Japanese practitioners usually welcome these enthusiasts fromoverseas, partly because they are willing to share the culture thatthey are proud of, and partly because the industries and its
culture is endangered domestically.
How to learn Japanese gardening is sometimes
misunderstood, or become confused with modern landscapearchitecture practice even by Japanese locals. International
enthusiasts who have determined to study the subject typicallylook for college-level higher education institutions or vocational
schools. Few of those schools, however, teach those subjects
practically. Totei-seido, or apprenticeship, has been the mainstream of learning traditional gardens in Japan. Students also try
to find textbooks and manuals for the practice, but it would bevery difficult to apply what is written to an actual site withdifferent climate and materials including soil, water and plants.
Even if they understand how to in theory, acquiring skills toactually do it requires years of training on site.
The apprenticeship is much more involved thanstudying in a classroom or doing a formal internship in modern
organization. Besides the language and common cultural gaps, anapprentice must be prepared for the strict seniority system andparticular manners for each industry. On a practical side,
obtaining a proper visa to live in Japan and work in such field of
traditional arts is often more difficult than to obtain a student
visa or permit to work for large corporations or organizations.

Domestically speaking, Japanese gardening is one of
the most endangered industries, suffering shortage of both
successors and job opportunities. There are more demands
overseas, but there are not enough practitioners to be willing totake such jobs mainly because of the language barrier. Local
practitioners of each country may acquire the necessary skills
perform Japanese gardening, but the path for such foreigners to
study the subject and receive a training is unclear. The author
often receives inquiries from those foreigners who are lost inseeking for a career of Japanese gardening.
International mobility in higher education is now being
promoted by the national and regional governments, and there
are a plenty of official supports since ‘A Plan for 300,000
Exchange Students’ was announced by the Japanese national
government in 2008. International competition to obtain
international students is heating up not just against U.S.A. andEuropean countries which have been accepting foreign students
for decades but also against rapidly rising China and Korea.
Business and technology are no longer enough to attract
international students to Japan, and culture should be the next
key. Traditional Japanese arts including Japanese gardens,
however, have not received enough attention with this regard.
Internationalization seems to be more systematicallydeveloped in other industries such as Chado, or the Way of Tea.
Chado is an integrated form of art and discipline closely related
to Japanese gardening, and there are schools such as Urasenke,
which has expanded all over the world and continued to educateinternational students to become authentic successors andmissionaries. Their educational and administrative system maygive suggestions for higher education institutions who areseeking for expansion and sustainable internationalization.

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Arno Suzuki
2. Methods

3.2. MODERNIZATION OF EDUCATION

The author has conducted interviews with practitioners since2000 to confirm her own observation and the discussions heard
in professional conferences. Supportive data and updated
information are also collected from publications by Japanesehigher education institutions and the governmental agencies.
Opinions from previously published academic papers are also
reviewed and quoted. The readers should note, however, that allof these opinions are common understandings in the industry thathave been discussed for years: none of them are a particularresearcher’s personal finding or judgment. The author also added
her own findings from her previous experience of teachingsubjects about traditional Japanese gardens to American college
students. Everything mentioned in this article is what ishappening in Japan, unless otherwise noted.
Most books and papers used as reference are written in
Japanese only. The author thought it would be valuable to let out
such domestic trade information and share it with theinternational community. For readers’ easier understanding, thecontents are often summarized instead of being directlytranslated word by word.
.

The modernization, or westernization, of Japanese higher
education in general is one reason for this lack of Japanesegarden education. It is similar to ‘hogaku’ or traditional Japanesemusic is forgotten in most K-12 schools, which were establishedafter the Meiji Restoration.
College level landscape architecture program in Japan
usually teach American style planning and design, perhaps
because the profession of Landscape architecture ant its
educational system was first established in the USA and many
Japanese professors studied there: All 50 states less District ofColumbia officially recognize landscape architect license, 47 ofwhich by their practice act and three of which by their title act(ASLA, 2015). Most of the former 47 states require applicantscollege-level degree from accredited institutions and certain
years of practical training before applying for the licensure exam.
The accredited institutions need to pass the periodical reviews by
American Society of Landscape Architects’ national
accreditation board (Suzuki, 2001).
The scale expansion of practice may be a reason for thismodernization. Abe (2007) looks back the history of the
Department of Landscape Architecture at Tokyo University ofAgriculture, which was the first landscape architecture schools inJapan. He observes a change in their curriculum: In 1920’s, there
were courses such as ‘Japanese Garden’, ‘History of Japanese
Garden’, ‘Tea House and Tea Garden’, ‘History of The Way ofTea’, ‘Architecture’, ‘Architecture History’ and ‘Aesthetics’. In
the 1945 curriculum, everything above disappeared except‘Architecture’, and some large-scale planning oriented subjects
such as ‘Park Planning’, ‘National Land Planning’ and‘Construction Machinery’ appeared. In the 1988 program, which
represents the current landscape architecture education trends inJapan, even ‘architecture’ is no longer a required subject. Thismay be indicating the trend toward specialization because of thescale expansion. Two garden related subjects, ‘Garden History’and ‘Garden Studies’, seem to have come back, but they do not
specialize in Japanese gardens.
Kyoto has the biggest concentration of historical gardens
and architecture: There are 17 UNESCO cultural heritage sites,
48 national treasures architectural sites, and 292 important
cultural assets sites in Kyoto Prefecture as of 2013. Kyoto
University is in the middle of these historical assets, but few
courses discuss such subjects at Kyoto University. An elective
course called “History of Japanese Landscape Architecture”
disappeared in 1996 from courses offered by Environmental
Design Laboratory, and then no Japanese garden related course
was available as a specialized subject until a Japanese garden
historian joined the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies in 2009.
The author has been offering a general education course
discussing Japanese gardens since 2008 and found that somestudents of a variety of majors are interested in the subject for
self-cultivation or internationalization purposes.
These changes in the curriculum and in students’ interests
reflect the trend of what the Japanese society needed in each era.
It was right after the Great Earthquake in Tokyo metropolitan
area in 1923 when Dr. Keiji Uehara decided to establish a
Landscape Architecture School in Tokyo, the first landscapearchitecture school and predecessor of Department of LandscapeArchitecture at Tokyo University of Agriculture. He rememberedthat he saw the urgent need of effective land planning for a quick
recovery of the city (Uehara, 1983 ). Another researcher suspects
that the craftsmanship in traditional Japanese gardening was noteasy to use for the new city and regional planning after Meiji
restoration in 1868 (Minomo, 2007 ).

3. Teaching Japanese Gardens in Higher Education
3.1. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE EDUCATIONAs of February 2015, 3 post-graduate level programs, 34 fouryear undergraduate programs and graduate programs attached tothem, 13 two-year undergraduate or vocational programs and 67
high school programs in landscape architecture, garden design,
environmental design or horticulture in Japan are accredited
toward certification exam by Registered Landscape Architects(RLA, 2015). This certification, however, is for planner ordesigner; therefore none of them emphasizes the training for
actual construction or specialize in Japanese garden education.
The national certificate for on-site implementation is called‘Zoen-ginou-shi, or garden construction master’ but theapplication for this certificate only requires certain years of work
experience, not any education at school.
The followings are some of a few schools which offers
extensive practical training for on-site implementation: Toyama
International College of Crafts and Arts and Kanazawa Instituteof Traditional Crafts are relatively new school established in
1996 in Hokuriku region, which emphasize training of
implementation skills. Nishi Nippon Junior College in Fukuoka
and Minami Kyushu University in Miyazaki, both of which arelocated in Kyushu Island, have been offering practical training intheir landscape and garden design curriculum since 1967. Someother institutions may also provide skill training courses but
assign more hours to theoretical lecture courses.
A few research institutions offer opportunities forstudying history, aesthetics, philosophy and other aspects ofJapanese gardens. Research Center for Japanese Garden Art andHistorical Heritage (JGHH) at Kyoto University of Art & Design
specialize in this subject. Tokyo National University of Fine Art
and Music, has also provided opportunities to study historical
heritage including Japanese gardens. International ResearchCenter for Japanese Studies currently have a professor
specializing in this subject and they may accept doctoral student
studying in English. JGHH has provided an open enrollment
intensive workshop in English since 1996. It may include someon-site gardening workshops, but the thirteen days spent mostly
for excursions and lectures is apparently not meant for a practicalor professional training.

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Opportunities, Obstacles and Possibilities for Foreigners to Study Traditional Japanese Gardening
3.3. SHORTAGE OF PRACTICAL TRAINING
Implementation and on-going maintenance are the most essential
part of Japanese gardening; therefore it is impossible to design
Japanese gardens properly without knowing how to construct andtake care of one. It is just like there is no composer, arranger or
conductor who does not know how to play musical instruments.
The difficulty for academic professors to teach such on-site skills
may be another reason why traditional Japanese garden has been
ignored, perhaps intentionally, in higher education. Therefore,
most college-level landscape architecture program in Japan only
teach history and some scientific subjects such as botany,
ecology, water management and so on, and some field survey
practice at best. Design studios may be offered, but they areallotted much less hours compared to how long they spent inarchitecture programs.
Four year colleges and graduate schools in Japan have beenemphasizing classroom lectures and research, and practical or
hands-on training has been left mainly up to vocational schools,
with a few exceptions of six-year medical, dental, veterinary andpharmaceutical professional schools. Some new graduate levelprofessional schools have started in Japan only for the last ten
years in fields such as law, business and clinical psychology.
Architecture programs are usually housed in engineering or art
schools, and Landscape architecture programs are usually housedin forestry or horticulture department in agriculture schools.
They have not really developed into professional schools yet.
Minomo (2007) analyzed that it is difficult to make professional
schools in Japanese higher education institutions because; 1) aconcept of ‘curriculum’ is not yet established, 2) faculty
members are research-oriented, 3) educational goals are notguaranteed, 4) what to teach for each professional fields is
unclear. In recent years, however, the ministry of education
culture sports science and technology (MEXT) has beenpromoting to establish the syllabus and course numbering system
in Japanese higher education to follow the international standard,and so this circumstance may change soon.
Uchida et al (2003) surveyed on how landscape architecture
programs in Japanese higher education institutions offer practicalhands-on training on gardening. They distributed the survey to
25 four-year colleges, 7 junior colleges and 15 vocational
schools. And they received answers from 11 four-year colleges,
5 junior colleges and 6 vocational schools. Among those who
answered, 6 four-year colleges, 4 junior colleges and all 6
vocational schools had some kind of practical training class intheir program. Among the 6 four-year colleges that had apractical training, 3 offered a training to make a supervisor or
instructor, 2 offered to make a designer, but just 1 offered a
training in actual construction skills to make a good craftsman.
The ratio turns around with junior colleges and vocational
schools: 2 junior colleges offered training to make a designer andthe other 2 offered to make a good craftsman. Just 1 vocational
school offered training to make a supervisor or instructor
whereas 5 other schools were training students to make a goodcraftsman. This difference in educational emphasize can be seenin the hours they spent on practical training as well. Vocational
schools in average spend 420 hours and junior colleges do 174
hours on practical training, whereas four year colleges spend thetotal of 70 hours on practical training (Uchida et al., 2003).
Uchida’s survey also shows reasons why some higher
education institutions cannot offer practical training (theparenthesis shows the number of same or similar answers): lackof site or its location problem (8), shortage of teaching staff andthe human resource problems (4), students’ safety concerns (3),shortage of time (2), lack of motivation (2), weather issues (2),cost (1), lack of tools (1) and lack of materials (1). On the other

hand, 40 percent of respondents think that handing down thelandscaping skills is important. And 40 percents of respondents
wishes to do that with a help of skilled practitioners, not just bythemselves. About 35 percent of those educators, however, think
it is very difficult to offer enough practical training under thecurrent educational system (Uchida et al., 2003).
One school stated that they did not offer a practical training
because it was too difficult to provide similar plant materials forall students to practice in a fair condition (Uchida, 2004). It isnatural, however, that each individual plant is different; therefore
they need to teach students how to make case-by-case judgments.
I suspect that those professors may not really know the subject.
The career path to be an academic and to be a garden artisan is sodifferent from the beginning that few academics have enoughpractical experience in this field. A survey on practicalexperience of college educators who teach professional subjects
may be wanted.
3.4. STUDYING JAPANESE GARDENS
Those who can read, write and speak Japanese may enter one ofthose junior colleges or vocational schools to acquire generallandscape design and construction skills. As seen in the previous
survey (Uchida et al., 2003), most of two-year institutions offer a
combination of classroom teaching and practical training. Noneof them, however, focus on Japanese gardens.
Several educational institutions and professionalorganizations offer a variety of workshops specifically fortraditional Japanese-style landscaping and gardening skills(Amasaki, 2007). All of them, however, are either short-term fora few days to two weeks, or only offered weekly or monthly.
These short-term or occasional programs are geared toward those
who are already working every day and wish to brush up theirskills. There are also other classes designed for those who justwish to expand their knowledge, not to work professionally.
All these workshops are held in Japanese language only,with two exceptions: The annual two-week intensive seminar at
JGHH is taught in English, and the one-day on-site workshop
following the biennial International Japanese Garden Symposium
offered by The Garden Society of Japan provides interpreters. To
seek for a professional training from a beginning level, however,
one needs to learn Japanese language first and look for a fulltime training opportunity for much longer term, either in schoolor employment. It also requires a proper visa and financial
support to live in Japan.
3.5. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATES
There is a public certification program for skilled garden
construction workers, which is called ‘Zoen-Ginou-Kentei, orLandscape Construction Skill Test’, the first grade to be thehighest to the third grade to be the entry level. The first grade iscertified by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and thesecond and third grades are certified by prefectures under theministry’s supervision. For all levels, the test is for an individual
examinee to construct a small Japanese-style garden with
provided materials on a given site within a limited time. Suchskills of actual construction, especially in Japanese-styles, arerarely taught in higher education institutions. Only 1 four-yearcollege, 4 junior colleges and 5 vocational schools offer optionalcourses to prepare for this exam (Uchida et al. 2003).
Other landscape architecture related registrations include:(a)Registered Landscape Architects - certified by professionalorganization, started in 2003, 349 registrants as of May 2007,
611 registrants as of April 2014 (CLA, 2008, 2015); (b)Gijutsushi, or Registared Engineer (RE) in the area of construction or23

Arno Suzuki
environment – a national license to practice as a landscapeconsultant, governed by MEXT, over 30,000 registrants as ofMarch 2008, (c) Zoen-seko-kanri-shi, or Landscape Construction
Supervisor - a national license necessary to bid in public projects,
governed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism, and some other privately accredited certifications.
However, none of these registration systems directly concerns
Japanese garden practice, except the Zoen Ginou-Kentei tests
skills to construct some Japanese garden elements.
4. The Nature of Japanese Gardening Practice4.1. DIFFERENCE FROM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Japanese gardens practice is design-build. The critical parts ofthe process are the material selection (Inoue, 2003). Educatedimprovisation in installation and maintenance are often necessary.
These skills are only acquired by experience, and current college
education in landscape architecture has little to offer.
In U.S.A., it works differently: Licensed professionals
called ‘Landscape architect’ design a site, draw a plan and hand
it to contractors who do the actual construction. With detailed
drawings and specifications, installation may not be too difficult
even for inexperienced workers. The industrialized materials andgeometric design also makes a project more efficient to draw,
install and maintain (Shimomura, 2006). With such conditions,
American consumers regard ‘gardeners’ to be unskilled workers.
In Japan, ‘Niwa-shi’ means ‘garden artisan’ although it isoften mistranslated as ‘gardener’. ‘Ueki-ya’ literary means‘garden plant merchant’, but it also means garden artisan. WhenJapanese people hear these terms, they assume craftsmen who
went through an intensive vocational training for years to
decades. They are scientifically knowledgeable and often
educated with traditional arts such as the Way of Tea and flower
arrangement. Less experienced ones are called ‘minarai’, whichmeans an apprentice or a trainee, typically refers to those whoare experienced less than five years. ‘Naka-narai, or‘journeyman’ refers to those who worked for less than ten years
as a rule of thumb. They start with simple labor-intensive tasks
while watching what their master and senior workers are doing.
They are supposed to steal skills from them, not to be taught
step-by-step. It is often said that it takes years to learn how toclean a garden properly. It is because Japanese garden sites are
so complex in shape and delicate in materials.

4.2. PHYSICAL TRAINING FOR JAPANESE GARDENING
In the interview about how to train new people in Japanesegardening business, Mr. Fujii, an experienced garden artisan
directing over 100 staff, mentioned that his new employee would
spend at least three months to learn manners starting from how togreet their colleagues and customers. Next, they would spend
months learning how to clean the site and tools, how to carryheavy things effectively. And then, they learn how to chooseright tools and materials, and how to use them appropriately(Yamaguchi and Fujii, 1982). Mr. Fujii also mentioned an
episode of another famous garden artisan in Kyoto: He always
had his new apprentice keep on crashing rocks into soil all day
for three to six months. He also made young people carry waterfilled buckets on a shouldering pole and irrigate his nursery,
instead of letting them use a sprinkler or even a hose.
Japanese garden design looks so delicate that people often
imagine that the job must be also gentle and delicate. It is in factlabor intensive. Most gardening works still has to be done by24

human power because the site is usually too small complex touse cattle or a motored vehicle. Simple pruning may require agardener to climb up the tree because ground is often too
irregular to set up a stepladder. Power tools and machines are not
helpful because each material has its individual shape and quality
and each site has a particular condition. This is why the physicaltraining becomes imperative.
The author interviewed an American apprentice who was
working for Ueto the sixteenth, one of the most famous garden
artisans in Kyoto. The apprentice was doing labor intensive
works for ten hours every day or more, six days a week. He had
been through such a training period for six years before hebecame skilled enough to work for himself in the US as aJapanese garden artisan. That apprentice already spoke Japanese
fluently when he joined the company. He seemed to be a quick
learner as well as an industrial trainee because six years was
shorter than a usual training period in the industry. When heasked around his senior garden artisans about their experience inrelated arts, one of them answered that he had studied flower
arrangement ‘only’ for seventeen years. (Brown, 2001. Personalcommunication).
4.3. EXPERIENCE-BASED IMPROVISATION
It is important for a garden artisan to be knowledgeable andcomfortable in related arts such as architecture, the Way of Tea
and flower arrangement. In the older times in Japan, someeducated people such as priests, tea masters, highly ranked
samurais and imperial family members played the role of thedesigner or master planner. They provided a grand design to thegarden artisan, and the artisan selected right materials, broughtthem in, and determined construction details on site.
These garden artisans often came from lower social rankings,
even from the lowest discriminated classes called ‘kawara-mono ,which literary meant ‘riverbank residents’. They made their way
up to become recognized garden artisans solely by their talentand familiarity with natural features such as rocks and wateraround their habitat (Shinji, 1970). Some garden artisans were sotrusted that they were often allowed to plan the entire project
themselves. There were also Zen priests called ‘ishidate’ literary
meaning ‘stone setters’ who specialized in garden construction.
Japanese garden creation requires on-site judgments andimprovisation. Japanese gardens deal with natural materials as
they are; therefore the garden professionals often have to decide
the design after they see the available material and make the bestout of it. They have to make millions of case-by-case judgmentson the spot and treat materials differently (Inoue, 2003). They
also have to take every surrounding environment into
consideration, natural or human-made, tangible or intangible.
Only educated and experienced artisans are able to perform suchcomplex tasks like conducting orchestra.
Such complex tasks cannot be explained in drawings or in a
written manual. It makes no sense to teach in a classroom, either.
It is just like the way a musical scores alone cannot reproduce agreat piece of music. Mr. Dangi, the educational chief of Kyoto
Prefecture Gardening Businesses’ Association said that “Sometechnique is just way too complex to explain verbally. It is
typical for garden artisans to tell their apprentice just to watch,learn and practice themselves.” (Personal communication, 2008)
For example, Japanese garden artisans often carry a hugeboulder that weighs several tons just by one piece of rope. They
have to find the center of gravity of a boulder, but it is toocomplex to calculate or point out by theory. “They just need toacquire an intuition by experience” (Fujii, 1982).

Opportunities, Obstacles and Possibilities for Foreigners to Study Traditional Japanese Gardening
5. Issues for International Students and Interns
5.1. VISA AND WORK PERMITS
The succession of such sophisticated skills in Japanese gardening
is in danger. Most Japanese young people nowadays do not haveenough patience for such time-consuming and hard trainings, andthey would rather choose modernized college education and jobs
in the office. The salary and working conditions such as work
hours are not generous enough for the skill, knowledge andexperience that the job requires.
The job market for the Japanese garden industry is notpromising, either. Clients decreased because of the change oflifestyle and shortage of land: People tend to demolish private
gardens and convert them to the site for apartments or officebuildings. It is understandable because having a garden would
not produce any income, but it just raises the owner’s property
tax. In this situation, Japan may not provide enough job
opportunities. Traditional garden artisans therefore started tolook for ‘Japanese garden’ projects outside Japan. Some of them
are interested in educating foreign enthusiasts. They all knowthat the everyday maintenance is imperative in Japanese gardens,
and it would be much more efficient if local people can do thatjob instead of hiring artisans all the way from Japan.
Despite the willingness of those leaders to accept and teachinternational apprentices, they often have to give up hiring them
just because they could not obtain a proper work-permit from the
Immigration. Many participants in the fifth International
Japanese garden symposium mentioned in the discussion that
Immigration Authorities would not admit Hitori-oyakata, or
sole-proprietary artisans or small private companies as aqualified sponsor to accept international interns”. (Toyoda et al.
2007). The author interviewed an official of the Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, who is currently developing
a foreign workers’ training program, and he said that landscaping
is not considered an area to accept international interns.
According to the law at that time, we should only accept foreign
workers in the areas such as information technology and healthcare, where the job is universal (personal communication, 2008).
5.2. CULTURAL GAPSIn the interview with Mr. Touemon Sano the sixteenth, known as
Ueto, he said that “Japanese and westerners are fundamentallydifferent. Japanese live in a rice-making cycle, which is spring tofall, and westerners live in a wheat-making cycle, which is fall tospring” (Sano, 2004, personal communication). He alsoemphasized the importance of knowing the natural climate, andto know the language to really understand the culture. He hascreated many Japanese gardens overseas and have accepted
many interns from western countries; therefore his words
conveyed the difficulty he has experienced to share the idea withhis colleagues from different cultures. He repeated all over his
book that it was impossible to write ‘methods’ in textbooks andmanuals (Sano, 1999)
Mr. Dangi has taught several westerners in his vocational
training programs at the Kyoto Prefecture Gardening Businesses’
Association. He suggested that we should provide different
teaching method for different people. He said that “Westerners
prefer to know theories first. If that’s the case, it may be more
efficient for them to study in a classroom for a couple of years at
a college or some school, and find a job to receive a hands-on
training. This path would allow them a time to learn the language
as well. The training would be so difficult if they don’t
understand Japanese” (Dangi, 2008, personal communication)
The author completely agrees to Mr. Dangi’s opinion, fromher own experience of teaching American students Japanesegarden design. The 80 first-timer American students successfully
learned the concept of Japanese design: They survived tea
ceremony lessons with unfamiliar manners, a strict overnight
meditation session at a Zen Temple, and many other cultural
mysteries and physical hardships. They became able tolerate
those ‘strange’ forms and rules after they understood the reasonsand philosophy behind them (Suzuki, 2004).
5.3. A CASE IN THE WAY OF TEA
A good example of internationalization of a traditional art isfound in Chado, or the Way of Tea. One of the leading schools
for this art called Ura-Sen-ke has developed their school into theone and only higher education institution in Japan for this art
since 1962. The program is a combination of classroom study fora half day and practical training for another half. All students live
in a dormitory and eat three meals together, which somehow
inherit the old tradition of apprenticeship. The international
students receive the same comprehensive education as domestic
students do, including the dormitory life, except they have a
special classes taught in English.
In a traditional teaching of the Way of Tea, new students
have to become an apprentice of a tea master of each area. As thestudents’ skill develops, the master gives so called Menjo, or alicense signed by the grand tea master. Apprentices climb up
many steps, and eventually they will be allowed to teach theirown apprentices when they reach to a certain level. In suchtraditional system, the education only relies on hands-on practice.
Students have to repeat a certain forms again and again until they
feel comfortable. Some teachers never explain anything, but justshow them how to do. Such ‘watch and learn’ system may haveworked for older generations, but it could be too difficult foryoung people who are used to knowledge and method basedlearning in a classroom. Needless to say, it should be confusing
for non-Japanese students who prefer to learn by logics.
Ura-sen-ke family has been innovative in its history: The
11th grand tea master invented Ryu-rei, or a style of tea
ceremony using a table and chairs, as early as in 19th century to
welcome new foreign visitors at Meiji Restoration. The 13th
master opened the Way of Tea for women, and the 14th masterstarted to teach the Way of Tea to foreigners. The 15th and theprevious grand tea master, Genshitsu Sen, is known for his
international activities to spread their philosophy to the world.
(Ura Senke, 2008). The 16th or present grand tea master,
Soshitsu Sen is known for his versatile activities and creativity
such as using utensils from overseas.
Midori-kai, or the special course exclusively forinternational students at the Ura-Senke Chado School seems toprovide solutions for all three obstacles typically hinderinternational students from learning traditional gardens in Japan visa, language and money: 1) The course is officially accredited
full-time curriculum under the regulation by the government andthey can issue an official certificate of ‘authorization of resident
eligibility’ for international applicants to apply for a student visa;
2) Although it would be helpful for students to know
conversational-level Japanese, the language would not be crucial
because the classes and lessons are taught in English; 3) All
international students are offered full-scholarship by theinstitution. The tuition and dormitory fee including three meals
are waived and the 100,000 yen stipend is paid each month.
Such a privilege is only given to five people each semester;
therefore the admission is competitive. Applicants have to bealready active in one of overseas branches of Ura-senke school,
and they have to be recommended by their branch to apply for
Midori-kai. After completion of one year course, they have to go25

Arno Suzuki
back home and be active at the branch in order to receive anotherrecommendation for the second year of study: They can renew
up to three years. The graduates from Midori-kai have to become
overseas instructors to spread the Ura-Sen-ke style tea ceremony,and they are expected to contribute as a cultural ambassador for
the Way of Tea. If they fail to do so, the future applicant fromthe same branch may not be admitted. Since all students havesuch serious professional commitment, nobody ever dropped out
from Midori-kai (Ura-senke International Division, 2008,
personal communication).
6. Conclusion
Ura-Sen-ke Midori-kai shows the good example of system ofteaching traditional gardens to international students mosteffectively and efficiently in given situations. Such systempromotes internationalization without legal, verbal or financial
obstacles, and provides exceptional opportunities only to those
who are really committed. Japanese garden industry may want tolearn from this model and go further to enable practical training
under current framework.
It is difficult to learn Japanese gardening in school only, buthigher education institutions may provide practical training
opportunity with the following scheme: Full-time students with astudent visa can work as much as 28 hours per week during theschool period, and they can work full time during vacations
under the current immigration law. They can work for any
employer as long as they are not illegal operation or in a sextrade. (Immigration Agency of Japan, 2015). To maintain astudent visa, the immigration agency requires students to enroll
at least six courses per week, which is usually an equivalent of
12 units. Higher education institutions can offer six lecture or lab
courses to teach theory and/or language and allow students tospend the remaining hours to receive training under an artisan
and get paid. Although the payment for 28 hours a week may not
be enough to make a living and pay tuition, it would certainly
help students financially besides giving them a chance for apractical training.
Optional Practical Training after graduation, as permitted in
the U.S. for one year, could be valuable in terms of acquiringcertain skills. Unfortunately, however, the current policy by the
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry ofJustice in Japan to accept foreign trainees are only for ODA, or
Official Development Assistance, purpose: They only approve
the technical area that may helpful for the economy and welfare
of developing countries. The government eventually should,
however, consider the importance of cultural exchange andpreservation of our own tradition as well. In the case of Japanesegardening overseas, the culture that Japanese people have been
proud to the world for such a long time is quickly decaying:
They are also misdirected because of the lack of properly trained
artisans on site. Concerned experts have been working on it on
volunteer basis, but such individual efforts have a limit.
Financial concern is a big issue when one considers
studying abroad. Even though it could not be as good as the UraSen-ke’s scholarship, some financial aid should be offered toacquire good students in this world competition. The government
and the industries should provide more scholarship on condition
that the recipient will contribute to the society in one way orother. In case of traditional gardens, the condition may be thatthe recipient will continue to contribute to maintain the traditionof their trade and spread the Japanese culture to the world, justlike the Midori-kai’s model. It is urgent to invite well-motivatedapprentices for industries suffering the shortage of successors.
The same suggestion may be given to higher education
institutions: Currently MEXT provides scholarship by the ODA

26budget for selected international students, but the amount of thescholarship is reduced almost every year because the decreasingneed of ODA. It is giving a big anxiety to the scholarship
recipients. Universities in Japan also concerns their good
students would be taken by other institutions such as the top
American universities that offers a sufficient scholarship. Since
universities in Japan do not have not yet established the selfsupportive financial system like some private universities in theUS, the government should keep providing good financial aid forinternational students for a while. The government recently
spend
some
budgetforselected
university
forinternationalization, first as ‘Global 30 Universities’ from 2009
and then ‘Super Global Universities’ starting in 2015, but theitems to spend those funds for is so limited that the money could
be wasted for one-time symposium and so on. The government
should consider allowing the fund to be used for scholarship orsome other means to continuously attract good students to Japan.
It is no longer for ODA purpose but for our own sake foracademic advancement and for internationalization. It is also
important for higher education institutions provide thoroughsupervision and follow-up for those scholarship students to makesure the citizens’ tax are not just given away for no good.
Good, well-motivated and diligent international students are
and giving a lot of good influence to domestic students in someJapanese universities. It is also happening in traditional arts andcrafts industries. Traditional arts and crafts including Japanesegardening may be utilized as a promotional material to attract
international students to Japan. Higher education institution may
provide a bridge for the Japanese garden apprenticeshipapplicants to obtain the legal status to live and work in Japan,
and the apprenticeship may support the students financially. It
will help all three parties; students, higher education institutions
and the Japanese garden industry.
Acknowledgements
The author extend the warmest gratitude for those who took theinterviews and provided referenced materials.

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