Fabyan Japanese garden (Geneva, IL); Stan Hywet Japanese garden (Akron, OH); Japanese Pavilion garden, 1933–1934 Century of Progress Exhibition (Chicago, IL)
T. R. Ōtsuka 大塚 太郎 (Ōtsuka Tarō) (1868 – c. 1940s?) was a Japanese garden builder. After emigrating from Japan to the United States in 1897 and moving to Chicago around 1905, he built dozens of Japanese-style gardens and rock gardens, mostly in the Midwest, between 1905 and the mid-1930s. His most notable projects were the Japanese-style garden of George and Nelle Fabyan in Geneva, Illinois (c. 1910);[1] the Japanese Garden at Stan Hywet in Akron, Ohio (1916);[2] the garden of Milton Tootle, Jr. in Mackinac Island, Michigan (before 1910);[1] and the official Japanese pavilion garden at the 1933–1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.[3]: 212
Tarō Ōtsuka was born in 1868 in the city of Kōchi in Kōchi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, Japan.[4] According to his 1897 passport record, his father was Katsunobu Ōtsuka (大塚勝宜)[5]—this was his formal samurai name; his everyday name was Shōsaburō Ōtsuka (大塚庄三郎)[6]—a high-ranked Tosa Domain samurai retainer until the Meiji Restoration, which occurred in the year of Tarō Ōtsuka's birth. Also, a 1924 Nichibei Jihō article[7] mentions that "…Tarō Ōtsuka was a Tosa Clan samurai." Additionally, his connections with several other high-ranked former samurai-class residents of Kōchi—journalist Kayano Nagatomo, who was a Japanese supporter of Sun Yat-sen and was likely Ōtsuka's cousin;[8] politician Kenkichi Kataoka;[9] and politician Gotō Shōjirō[10]—make it likely his family was also of similar rank. Kayano’s father went into the mining business with a relative named Ōtsuka,[10] who may have been Tarō Ōtsuka’s father.
Ōtsuka did not apprentice as a gardener in Japan, according to landscape professor Keiji Uehara, who met him when visiting the United States around 1921 to document overseas Japanese-style garden work:[11]
Ōtsuka was a Kōchi citizen…while dealing with a wide variety of stone materials as a miner rather than a gardener, he became interested in the stonework in gardens. He began to create shoreline stonework and garden ponds. After that, he gained popularity by arranging urushi-lacquered (vermilion) taiko bridges, urushi-lacquered torii gates, stone lanterns, and weeping willows in small areas.
Uehara also writes in the same book that "Tarō Ōtsuka...built many unique Japanese gardens in the central region of the United States. But he was self-taught."
He likely did some of his early garden work in Japan, as an advertisement he placed in the April 1917 issue of Country Life claimed that Japanese and rock gardens were "My specialty for thirty years",[12] implying that he had begun building gardens by 1887, ten years before he emigrated to the United States.
Ōtsuka was married to Yoneko Kamura by 1897.[13] They did not have any children, according to the 1920 US census.
Ōtsuka emigrated to the United States in 1897. He arrived in the Port of Seattle, Washington from Kobe, Japan aboard the Kamakura Maru on December 21, 1897,[13] and settled in Tacoma, Washington. After several years working in Tacoma, he brought his wife to the US in July 1900.[14] They moved to Chicago around 1905, perhaps after attending the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
Ōtsuka likely began building rock gardens and Japanese-style gardens in the Chicago area soon after 1905, based on the date of his known and probable projects. During his career, Ōtsuka built numerous gardens in the Midwestern states, Florida, and upstate New York.[15] As T. R. Ōtsuka, he advertised widely between 1911 and the early 1930s in national magazines including Country Life, House Beautiful, and The Garden.
Ōtsuka's advertisement in Country Life, April 1917
The Midwest has participated less vigorously than the East Coast in the Japanese garden movement. T.R. Otsuka, mentioned earlier for advertising himself as a Chicago "Japanese Garden Constructor" in a 1911 magazine, four years later had changed his title to "Japanese Landscape Architect"; and from a practitioner in "Quaint Japanese Style," he had become adept in "All styles, with a specialty to harmonize American ground." During the interim, he had learned that the hinterlands remained relatively provincial in accepting imported modes.
— Clay Lancaster, The Japanese Influence in America (1963), page 206
From 1911 to 1916, Ōtsuka's garden business address was in the Fine Arts Building at 414 South Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park in Chicago.[17]
Advertisement in Keith's magazine, December 1914Advertisement for T. R. Ōtsuka, House & Garden, January 1923, showing his winter address in FloridaAdvertisement for T. R. Ōtsuka rock gardens, Garden & Homebuilder, September 1927
From before 1910[18] to around 1930, Ōtsuka was associated with the D. Hill Nursery Company of Dundee, IL. The nursery, one of the oldest and largest suppliers of evergreen trees and shrubs in Illinois,[19] included testimonials about Ōtsuka's skills in building rock gardens and Japanese-style gardens in its catalogs,[20] and in return, Ōtsuka likely sourced the evergreens he used in his gardens from its nursery.
Beginning in the early 1920s, the Ōtsukas began spending winters in Yamato, Florida (a Japanese community near Miami),[21] and they moved to New York City in late March 1924.[22]
The Japanese government commissioned Ōtsuka to build the gardens around their official pavilion buildings at the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933.[3]: 212 Prof. Kendall H. Brown states that "The Japanese pavilion featured a teahouse with small tea garden and the main pavilion with entry garden built by Tarō Ōtsuka, a Japanese living in Chicago who had constructed gardens throughout the midwest."[23]
When and where Ōtsuka died is not known. His wife died on February 19, 1937, in Miami, Florida.[24] Uehara writes, "After his wife's death, Mr. Ōtsuka returned to Japan alone and later went to China, but his whereabouts disappeared afterward."[11]: 220
Documented garden projects in the United States (Japanese-style gardens unless otherwise noted, *asterisked projects are documented by inclusion in Ōtsuka's brochure, see below):
c. 1905: Milton Tootle Garden, Mackinac Island, MI*
It is probable that Ōtsuka also built numerous rock gardens in varying styles in the Midwest, as he specifically advertised his skills in rock garden construction between 1915 and 1930.
Testimonial for garden building services of T. R. Ōtsuka in D. Hill Nursery catalog (Dundee, IL), Spring 1918, page 25. This rock garden was built with stacked limestone slabs and shows that Ōtsuka built rock gardens in a wide range of styles.
A single surviving photocopy[34] of a five-fold brochure published by Ōtsuka around 1919 is the most important surviving record of his work. The brochure details Ōtsuka’s experience and the history and philosophy of Japanese gardens. A portrait of him is included, as well as small photos of nine private Japanese-style gardens and one public park garden (most of the gardens are confirmed to be his work through other sources):
Mr. Milton Tootle, Mackinac Island, Michigan
Mrs. George Fabyan, Geneva, Illinois
Mr. F. A. Seiberling, Akron, Ohio
Mr. Joy Morton, Lisle, Illinois
Mr. H. D. Higinbotham, Joliet, Illinois
Bradley Park, Peoria, Illinois
Mrs. Clarence LeBus, Lexington, Kentucky
Mrs. Edward Morris, Chicago, Illinois
Mr. E. L. King, Winona, Minnesota
Mrs. L. F. Swift, Lake Forest, Illinois
The brochure was published between 1916 and 1921, including the 300 South Michigan Avenue address, where Ōtsuka's garden business mailing address during that period. The Laura Bradley Park garden was built in 1918[35] and was pictured in the brochure. It was most likely printed around 1919 or at the end of World War I.
Text side of garden brochure published around 1919 by T. R. Ōtsuka
Image side of garden brochure published around 1919 by T. R. Ōtsuka
^Tarō Ōtsuka's passport record #109782 of November 16, 1897 at the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo recorded Ōtsuka as "The first son of Katsunobu（勝宜）Ōtsuka, who is belonging to the warrior class."
^Jansen, Marius. The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen. Stanford University Press, 1954. https://archive.org/details/japanesesunyatse00jans/page/252/mode/2up?q=%22Taro+Otsuka%22 An endnote in the book mentions a letter from Sun to Kayano in which Sun refers to Tarō Ōtsuka of Chicago as “your relative.” Ōtsuka met Sun in October 1911 when he was raising money in the US for the Chinese revolution, according to Kayano's book Revolutionary Secrets of the Republic of China (萱野長知. 中華民國革命秘笈. 1940 ([1]) and Ōtsuka forwarded a telegram to Sun from Kayano urging Sun to return to China because of the successful October 10 revolution.
^Ōtsuka's arrival card of December 1897 (Ancestry.com) lists a "T. Kataoka" as his contact person in Tacoma. An article in The Tacoma Daily Ledger of July 3, 1894 mentions that "The Messrs. Kataoka Brothers are sons of K. Kataoka, a prominent and rich member of the liberty and radical party in Japan."
^ abKubota, Bunji; Sakimura, Girō (1996). Kayano Nagatomo kenkyū萱野長知研究. Kōchi Civic Library 高知市民図書館.NCIDBA29952033. Page 6 states that Kayano's father, Shinsaku "went into the mining business with a relative named Ōtsuka at the suggestion of Gotō Shōjirō." And Page 7: "According to Ms. Kuroda Kinu 黒田絹, the daughter of Shinsaku (with Shinsaku’s second wife), this is the story: According to a relative named Ōtsuka (Kayano Nagatomo's maternal uncle), Shinsaku worked with his cousin, who was the father of Sengoku Mitsugu (仙石頁, Minister of Railways and President of the Manchuria Railway), to manage copper mines and hot springs outside of the prefecture, but they failed because of their samurai business methods."
^ abUehara, Keiji (1983). Kono me de mita zōen-hattatsu-shi この目で見た造園発達史 [The History of Landscaping Development as Seen with My Own Eyes] (in Japanese). Tokyo: "Kono me de mita zōen-hattatsu-shi" kankōkai. NCIDBA44812561
^ abTaro Otsuka Arrival Card, December 21, 1897, Ancestry.com
^Arrival list of the S.S. Riujun Maru in Seattle on July 6, 1900, lists Mr. and Mrs. “T. Ohtsuka,” ages 32 and 23, with an intended destination of Tacoma. (Familysearch.org)
^Winona Independent (Winona, MN) May 16, 1914 (from Winona Historical Society): "Mr. Otsuka... left last night for Niagara Falls to install one of his picturesque little gardens. He will also build one at Buffalo, N.Y."
^Lancaster, Clay. The Japanese Influence in America. Wilton H. Rawls, 1963. Page 206.
^Otsuka's garden business mailing address in advertisements placed between 1911 and 1922 coincided with the address of a Chicago Asian art import store, the Toyo Company (東洋商會, Tōyō Shōkai). Otsuka may have been a partner in this business with Tomihei Maruyama 丸山富平. The store and Otsuka's garden business mailing address moved to new addresses in 1916 and 1921. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1914-dec-keithsmagazine-crop.jpg
^The 1911 Hill's catalog and planting guide shows a torii gate on the nursery grounds that very closely resembles those built by Otsuka in the Milton Tootle, Jr. and Fabyan gardens: https://archive.org/details/CAT31291970/page/14/mode/2up
^“Western Springs Residence.” Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1919, page 104. "… Japanese garden – Laid out by T. R. Otsuka, Japanese landscape gardener, 414 S. Michigan Ave.; includes concrete ponds with half-moon bridge, teahouse, waterfalls; entire grounds beautified with sixteen varieties of pines and forty varieties of iris. Wonderful opportunity for one who would appreciate the beauty of such grounds and gardens."
^Handwritten letter from T. R. Otsuka to Mrs. F. A. Seiberling, September 11, 1917 (in Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens collection). "Mrs. Ed. Morris and Mr. R. D. Forgan is waiting for me for the fall work, but I must decide your date first."
A 1938 printed real estate listing for the Forgan property in the Highland Park Historical Society collection included in the description: “…charming paths through the wooded ravine which lead to an Alpine Rock Garden and large fish pond.”
^De la Hunt, Thomas James. “The Pocket Periscope.” Evansville Courier and Press (Evansville, Indiana), May 29, 1927. "...the exquisite Japanese garden which the landscape artist Otsuka created at French Lick Springs."
^Robbins, Zila. “A Glimpse of Japan Prevails in Garden at J. I. Holcomb Home, Cold Spring Road.” Indianapolis Star, March 30, 1930. "...the Japanese garden constructed several years ago by a Japanese landscape artist, Tora (sic) Otsuka."
^“Japanese Garden to Bloom at W. B. A. Summer Camp, Native Architect Designs Setting for Buildings.” The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan), December 10, 1923. "T. R Otsuka, Japanese landscape architect of Chicago, has spent two weeks in Port Huron laying out the grounds of the W. B. A. Lake Huron camp...."
^"To Build Japanese Garden." The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana), June 11, 1927. "T. R. Otsuka, Japanese landscape gardener, has been hired by the trustees of Memorial Park to build a Japanese garden at the park, north of this city."
^The brochure is held in the private collection of Harlan N. Higinbotham of Joliet, IL (the grandson of Otsuka's client, Harlan D. Higinbotham). The photocopy was obtained by Prof. Kendall H. Brown of California State University Long Beach and is available in the digital archive collections at Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley, St. Charles, IL.
Fabyan Japanese garden, Geneva, IL (built between 1909 and 1915)
c.1920 photo of Mrs. F. A. Seiberling in Japanese garden at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens (built in 1916)
Japanese-style garden of Louis F. Swift in Lake Forest, IL, c.1919 (built between 1910 and 1914)
Japanese Garden at Laura Bradley Park in Peoria, IL, c.1920 (built around 1915)
Japanese-style garden of Milton Tootle, Jr. in Mackinac Island, MI, c.1920 (built before 1910)
Rock garden pond of David Hill at D. Hill Nursery, Dundee, IL, c.1920
French Lick Springs Hotel Japanese garden, c.1925
Japanese-style garden of Mrs. Edward Morris at 4800 S. Drexel Boulevard in Chicago, IL, c.1918 (built around 1915)
Text side of garden brochure published around 1919 by T. R. Ōtsuka
Image side of garden brochure published around 1919 by T. R. Ōtsuka
