Peek Inside the New Japanese Garden at Meijer Gardens

A new Japanese garden designed by Hoichi Kurisu opened earlier this month at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The eight­-acre space is the most recent addition to the popular destination, which also includes a 30-­acre sculpture park, an indoor conservatory, and an amphitheater.

Frederik Meijer, founder of the Meijer grocery and retail chain, and his wife, Lena, opened the gardens in 1995. The sculpture park—started from the couple's private collection—now boasts more than 300 works and regularly draws international art crowds. Meijer envisioned the new Japanese garden just two years prior to his death in 2011. Now fully realized, the Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden adds seven artworks to the sculpture collection.

Kinetic sculptor George Rickey’s Four Open Squares Horizontal Gyratory­-Tapered is installed above the garden’s central pond; Long Island Buddha , a battered steel­-and­-copper Buddha head by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, sits on its shore. Giuseppe Penone’s It Will Continue to Grow Except at that Point , a bronze forearm and hand latched onto a tree trunk, is placed among Japanese maples, cherry, and serviceberry trees. These and other works by Anish Kapoor, Jenny Holzer, David Nash, and Masayuki Koorida are permanently installed in the garden.

The new space also features a Zen-style garden, multiple waterfalls, and a traditional Japanese tea house that will offer formal tea ceremonies. The Japanese garden is open year­-round to be enjoyed by the Meijer Gardens’ growing international crowd.

1000 East Beltline Avenue NE, Grand Rapids, Michigan; meijergardenrg