Japanese Garden
Peace in dry country
stone, water, and memory
rest in quiet green
Yes, that was my attempt at haiku. This is a blast from the past of the Cowra Japanese Garden.
I’m doing yet another round of culling my photography archives — the third deep dive in as many years (clearly a slow process). I first posted a version of this shot back when I’d just picked up a camera and joined Flickr. Also when I was overenthusiastically experimenting with that classic fake HDR look. This is a refreshed take with a lighter hand on the sliders, still a combination of 3 bracketed exposures.
The gardens are located in the town of Cowra in the Central West region of NSW, Australia. The gardens were created to honour the historical and ongoing relationship between the people of Cowra and Japan — and the story behind it is surprisingly moving.
In 1960, the Japanese government decided to bring the remains of their war dead from around Australia to be reburied in Cowra, which already housed a cemetery for 231 Japanese soldiers killed during the 1944 Cowra breakout - a dramatic and tragic chapter involving a nearby prisoner-of-war camp. After the war, the Cowra RSL took on the respectful maintenance of the cemetery, which was formally ceded to Japan in 1963. In 1971, Cowra Tourism proposed the idea of a Japanese garden to acknowledge this connection, and Japan agreed to support it, as a gesture of appreciation for the town’s care of their fallen soldiers. It’s a nice outcome I think, for something rooted in war - a story worth reading if you’re into history.
The gardens themselves are a little pocket of Japan tucked into the dry, sunburnt hills of inland NSW. Think: manicured hedges, waterfalls, rocky slopes, peaceful lakes, and the occasional waterbird. There’s also a traditional Edo cottage, an open-air tea house (& you can get Japanese sweets), and a bonsai house (I've always loved Bonsai, don't have the patience to grow one though).
Hard to believe this peaceful garden is in regional NSW - we’re hoping to explore the real thing in Japan next year.
Have a great week out there. Thanks for any comments and likes, they are all appreciated!
Japanese Garden
Peace in dry country
stone, water, and memory
rest in quiet green
Yes, that was my attempt at haiku. This is a blast from the past of the Cowra Japanese Garden.
I’m doing yet another round of culling my photography archives — the third deep dive in as many years (clearly a slow process). I first posted a version of this shot back when I’d just picked up a camera and joined Flickr. Also when I was overenthusiastically experimenting with that classic fake HDR look. This is a refreshed take with a lighter hand on the sliders, still a combination of 3 bracketed exposures.
The gardens are located in the town of Cowra in the Central West region of NSW, Australia. The gardens were created to honour the historical and ongoing relationship between the people of Cowra and Japan — and the story behind it is surprisingly moving.
In 1960, the Japanese government decided to bring the remains of their war dead from around Australia to be reburied in Cowra, which already housed a cemetery for 231 Japanese soldiers killed during the 1944 Cowra breakout - a dramatic and tragic chapter involving a nearby prisoner-of-war camp. After the war, the Cowra RSL took on the respectful maintenance of the cemetery, which was formally ceded to Japan in 1963. In 1971, Cowra Tourism proposed the idea of a Japanese garden to acknowledge this connection, and Japan agreed to support it, as a gesture of appreciation for the town’s care of their fallen soldiers. It’s a nice outcome I think, for something rooted in war - a story worth reading if you’re into history.
The gardens themselves are a little pocket of Japan tucked into the dry, sunburnt hills of inland NSW. Think: manicured hedges, waterfalls, rocky slopes, peaceful lakes, and the occasional waterbird. There’s also a traditional Edo cottage, an open-air tea house (& you can get Japanese sweets), and a bonsai house (I've always loved Bonsai, don't have the patience to grow one though).
Hard to believe this peaceful garden is in regional NSW - we’re hoping to explore the real thing in Japan next year.
Have a great week out there. Thanks for any comments and likes, they are all appreciated!