UNKNOWN PEARL AMONG JAPANESE GARDENS ABROAD (Japanese garden at the Batumi botanical garden, Georgia)

Abstract

This paper aims to bring attention of the Japanese Garden experts to the unknown pearl, real jewelamong Japanese gardens abroad, which was built in the beginning of the 20th century in the Batumi Botanical Garden, Georgia. We assume that this Garden has a significant value for the history of the Japanese gardens abroad, since it might be the oldest one on the territory of Imperial Russia. Japanese gardens, which has millennium-old history of religion and landscaping art, have begun their spread worldwide at the end of 19th – beginning of 20th centuries. The first examples were intended to introduce Japanese culture overseas and were connected to international events or as a part of an active cultural and political exchange between the countries’ governments 1. However, the building of the Japanese Garden at the Batumi Botanical Garden was not dedicated to any big international event. From this prospective, we can conclude that it is somehow unique in few aspects: historical, cultural and even diplomatically. Research question of the paper is: how and why the Japanese garden was built in Batumi? Our research on the Japanese Garden at the Batumi Botanical Garden will be limited due to the lack of materials on the topic. Some questions to be researched will still remain. Nonetheless, this paper is the attempt to summarize and analyze all sources on the topic available in Georgia.