Interviews

1. Learning how to be a gardener

2. How to be a successful gardener

3. Natural look of Japanese-style gardening

4. Enjoying gardening work

5. Difficulties for gardeners in England

6. Designing a Japanese-style garden in England

7. Important features of Japanese gardens

8. Hiring a helper for gardening route after stroke

9. Incorporating native plants into Japanese-style gardens

10. Japanese-style gardening to keep clients happy

11. Changing demography of gardeners in Southern California

Sansei Gardener

Important features of Japanese gardens

It’s just your own feeling – how you would perceive a garden the way you wanted it and what type of plants you’re going to put in it. So it’s an art. It’s like you’re drawing a picture. So if it looks beautiful to you, it must be pleasing to the eye. So Japanese garden is something where you build, where it’s peaceful. You do not make a pathway in a straight line. You zig-zag it. So you have to come to a corner of the zig-zag. You have to sort of stop and look and you walk again and you turn again. You stop and look. So a Japanese garden, a Chinese garden, it’s something that’s supposed to be very relaxing, very pleasing to the eye, and it’s like meditation. That’s what Japanese gardens are.

agriculture gardeners gardening landscape gardening

Date: December 1, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Daniel Lee

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

Interviewee Bio

Lou Kitashima is a Sansei gardener from Los Angeles. As a child, he and his family were incarcerated at the Gila River concentration camp in Arizona during World War II. After the war, the family returned to Los Angeles where his father was a gardener. As a young man, he was stationed overseas in England with the Air Force's Strategic Air Command. While in England, he met and married an English woman. After his service was over, he returned to the U.S. with his wife and had three children.

Upon his return, he entered the gardening profession and became known as the "Gardener for the Stars," working for celebrities such as Rod Stewart, Sylvester Stallone, and Ann Margaret. He later returned with his family to England where he started a gardening business. He later returned to the U.S. although his family remained in England.

He resumed his gardening business in Los Angeles and also spent 17 years as the Head Gardener for West LA College before retiring in 2003. He continues to work for a few customers even now to keep active. (July 7, 2007)