Takeo Shiota (1881–1946) was a pioneering Japanese garden designer whose artistry introduced the aesthetics of Japanese landscape architecture to American audiences in the early twentieth century. Born in Japan in 1881, Shiota studied traditional garden design before traveling to the United States in 1907. At a time when Japanese art and culture fascinated many Americans, he sought to adapt centuries-old design principles to the modern, urban environment of New York.

Shiota’s most enduring legacy is the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, completed in 1915. This was among the first Japanese gardens created for a major American public institution. Employing traditional hill-and-pond and stroll-garden styles, Shiota arranged boulders, bridges, lanterns, and carefully selected plantings to create a landscape of balance, impermanence, and seasonal change. Visitors were invited to move through curving paths where views gradually revealed themselves, evoking the sense of walking through a living painting.

In addition to his landscape work, Shiota was the author of The Miniature Japanese Landscape: A Short Description and Japanese Gardens and Houses. These publications reflected his desire to share Japanese design principles more broadly and helped shape American understanding of Japanese aesthetics during a period of expanding cultural exchange.

During the 1920s, Shiota extended his professional influence through a partnership with Thomas S. Rockrise (born Iwahiko Tsumanuma, 1878–1936), a Japanese-American architect known for blending Western and Japanese design traditions. Together, they operated from 366 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, offering design services that bridged architectural and landscape practice. This collaboration reflected Shiota’s versatility and his ability to situate Japanese design within New York’s evolving urban fabric.

His later years, however, were marked by hardship. During World War II, Shiota was confined in a U.S. internment camp, a tragic fate shared by thousands of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans. The experience curtailed his work and damaged his health. He passed away in 1946, not long after his release.

Yet his influence endures. The Hill-and-Pond Garden, carefully restored in later decades, remains one of the most beloved landscapes in New York and a vital symbol of cultural dialogue. Shiota’s vision continues to remind us that gardens are more than designed spaces—they are works of art and sites of encounter between worlds.

References

• Brooklyn Botanic Garden, “Japanese Garden Centennial,” Brooklyn Botanic Garden, accessed September 9, 2025, https://www.bbg.org/collections/japanese_garden_100th_anniversary

• Jeanne Rostaing, “BBG’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden: A History,” Brooklyn Botanic Garden Stories, November 24, 2015, https://www.bbg.org/article/bbgs_japanese_hill_and_pond_garden_a_history.

• Takeo Shiota, The Miniature Japanese Landscape: A Short Description (New York: Shiota Landscape Company, 1910); Takeo Shiota, Japanese Gardens and Houses (New York: 1912).

• “Takeo Shiota,” Wikipedia, last modified 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeo_Shiota.

• The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden,” TCLF. https://www.tclf.org/landscapes/japanese-hill-and-pond-garden.