The Japanese style garden at Hillwood and its context

Magazine Antiques, March, 2003 by Kendall H. Brown

Not only does Myaida propose a hybrid ceremony but he suggests in his conclusion that he can build the appropriate structures and garden, for "no one can imitate the idea successfully without the assistance of one who is fully acquainted with the original Japanese Tea Party." Myaida then offers to be the host of such parties, citing his aristocratic pedigree as proof of his proper social status. The pamphlet concludes:

If you would be interested in my suggestions and work on your estate, which I assure you would be a most exclusive idea in this country, I should deeply appreciate an opportunity to give my best effort and ability, as it is my desire to accomplish just one piece of work of art to leave in America before returning to Japan.

It appears that Myaida's "New American Tea Party" was never put into practice. In the 1950s, however, he did start to build "American Japanese gardens" in response to clients who wanted a Japanese garden. Most of his patrons were women, for, as was written in the article "Japan Invades Gardens," "A Japanese garden is about the most chic thing anybody can own these days." (8) Myaida worked on gardens for such North Shore luminaries as the collector of Japanese art Mary Griggs Burke, but his greatest commission was Marjorie Post's, which came to him via her chief landscape architect at Hillwood.

In 1955 Marjorie Post purchased the twenty-five-acre property Arbremont, which she renamed Hillwood after her previous home on Long Island. Myaida subsequently was hired to redesign an oriental garden already on the grounds. His original blueprint, "Basic Plan for Improvement of Existing Japanese Garden at Hillwood," shows that the garden had a small waterfall and upper pool, and a larger lower pond with a bridge leading to a small island. Myaida enlarged the upper pool and waterfall, added a second bridge to the island in the lowest of the three ponds, and constructed a new path of stepping stones.

Although Myaida's original plan includes only two stone lanterns and a stone pagoda as ornaments, it is apparent that Marjorie Post wanted to use the garden as a setting for the various metal and stone Asian statuettes she had purchased in the United States and Asia. As the design progressed, Myaida accommodated his client by setting out many of her treasures--including brass goldfish, phoenixes, cranes, and a stone image of the bodhisattva Guanyin--around the multi-tiered garden. Although these objects were probably not to Myaida's taste, his philosophy was that the garden was for the client and thus should reflect the client's predilections rather than his own. Another sign of this flexibility is found in regard to the color of the garden's torii style gate. Initially Myaida asked his patron whether she wanted the gate covered with a wood stain or with red, black, gold, or yellow paint. In a follow-up letter he wrote that "this garden gate is traditionally used in private gardens and should be left unpainte d to become weathered. Do you prefer this?" (9) Ultimately the gate was left unpainted.