Interviews

1. Studying in Japan before working in the US

2. His father urged him to go to the US

3. Americans changing his opinion of the US

4. Returning to Japan after studying in New York

5. Decision to remain in the US and become an American citizen

6. The first garden he visited in the US

7. Practicing in the US

8. Developing international programs

9. Describing the meaning of "Nikkei"

Uesugi,Takeo

(1940-2016) Issei Landscape Architect

His father urged him to go to the US

This is the time, you know, when I came a … Kyoto University, and when I came back to teaching Osaka, ‘bout that time, my father started to talk about my future life. I wasn’t married that yet. And he said, “Why don’t you go, you know, to America? Why don’t you go to America?”

Because he actually, as I said, he became a missionary from landscape architect or landscape gardener. He wanted to go to Argentine to do missionary. He had thought Japan too small, such a man. He’s a big man too. But he became sick. So he had hope somebody to go to oversea.

He wanted me to, you know, extend some of the, you know, my understanding of teaching to different culture. “You don’t have to be missionary, you can be teacher, you can be … but why don’t you go America; and then to show what the Japanese is.” That’s the kind of man that he was.

landscape gardening migration

Date: August 10, 2016

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sojin Kim, John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Dr. Takeo Uesugi, born in Osaka on March 25, 1940, continued a family tradition of thirteen prior generations of Japanese garden builders. He completed undergraduate studies in landscape architecture at Osaka Prefecture University in 1962 and began graduate studies at Kyoto University before earning his master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967. He returned to Japan to teach landscape architecture at Kyoto University in 1969. In 1970 he contributed to the landscape design of the Japan Pavilion for Expo ‘70 in Osaka. Returning to California to teach landscape architecture in the College of Environmental Design at Cal Poly Pomona, he designed projects for public gardens, as well as for corporate and individual clients, integrating the principles of traditional Japanese gardens with the climate and lifestyles of post-World War II California.

His major work includes: restoration of the Japanese Garden at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California; design of the Pine Wind Garden at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center; and design of the James Irvine Japanese Garden at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

In 2000, Dr. Uesugi retired after 30 years of teaching at Cal Poly Pomona, though he remained active as Professor Emeritus. In 2010 the Japanese government honored him with the Order of the Sacred Treasure recognizing his lifetime of achievement. He passed away in January of 2016 at the age of 75. (April 2016)

* This interview was conducted by curator Sojin Kim for Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden, an exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum in 2007.