JAPANESE GARDENS FROM THE LATE GILDED AGE: CRANBROOK IN CONTEXT

Sunday, June 7th, 2026 | 5:00pm - 6:15pm

Cranbrook Art Museum de Salle Auditorium

39221 Woodward Avenue

Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

In-Person Lecture and Conversation with Dr. Kendall Brown

Before the lecture, from 3:00 to 4:30pm, Center Director Gregory Wittkopp and Cranbrook Japanese Garden Designer Sadafumi Uchiyama (now based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan) will be welcoming visitors in the Cranbrook Japanese Garden and discussing its ongoing rejuvenation.

Lecture Admission:
$20 for Adults and Seniors
$15 for Cranbrook House & Gardens Auxiliary Members
$10 for Full-time Students and Cranbrook Alumni

Seating is Limited; Advance Registration Required

Presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

ABOUT THE LECTURE

The Cranbrook Japanese Garden is among the oldest Japanese-style gardens in North America. Created in 1915 as part of the country estate of Cranbrook’s founders, newspaper publishers George and Ellen Booth, the one-acre, pond-style strolling garden is undergoing a transformative rejuvenation, which includes the newly completed New Entrance Garden designed by Sadafumi Uchiyama.

This illustrated lecture, by Dr. Kendall Brown from California State University Long Beach, explores the context for the Booths’ Japanese garden at Cranbrook. It first traces the illustrious history of Japanese gardens on estates across the United States—from Isabella Stewart Gardner’s pioneering landscape at Green Hill, her 40-acre estate in Brookline near Boston, through those at long vanished country homes—to show the uses and abuses of Japanese garden culture. The lecture then charts the transformation of estate gardens into heritage institutions, focusing on the gardens for the Rockefellers at Kykuit (Sleepy Hollow, New York), Isabel Longdon Stine at Hakone (Saratoga, California), and Henry Huntington (San Marino, California). It concludes by suggesting some ways that Japanese gardens, including the Cranbrook Japanese Garden, can maintain their relevance and help them flourish.

Dr. Kendall Brown first lectured at Cranbrook in April 2016. His presentation and conversations led to the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research’s commitment to the rejuvenation of the Cranbrook Japanese Garden and the selection of Sadafumi Uchiyama as the designer of the garden’s Master Plan (2018) and the New Entrance Garden (2025).

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Kendall H. Brown is Professor Emeritus of Asian Art History at California State University Long Beach. He holds a PhD in Art History from Yale University and a Master of Arts from UC Berkeley. He publishes in several areas of Japanese art, focusing on popular arts of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as on Japanese-style gardens in North America. From 2007–2009 he served as Curator of Exhibitions, Programs and Collections at the Pacific Asia Museum. He has curated exhibitions for several American museums, exploring topics from modern Japanese woodblock prints to Art Deco and lacquer makers’ tools. He was a co-founder and past president of the North American Japanese Garden Association, and is the author of three books and many articles on the design, political implications, and cultural history of American Japanese gardens. His most recent curatorial project was an exhibition of Japanese sheet music cover illustration for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

LECTURE LOCATION AND BARRIER-FREE ENTRANCE

Cranbrook Art Museum is accessed through Cranbrook's main entrance at 39221 Woodward Avenue. Free parking for the lecture is available on the east side of the Art Museum and in the parking deck located midway between Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science. Attendees that would like access to the Art Museum's barrier-free entrance (through the New Studios Building) will need to make advance arrangements with the Center the week before the lecture by emailing center@cranbrook.edu or calling 248.645.3307.

CRANBROOK JAPANESE GARDEN LOCATION

Visitors that would like to visit the Cranbrook Japanese Garden before the lecture are encouraged to park at Cranbrook Art Museum (or Cranbrook Institute of Science) and walk to the Japanese Garden. It is about a 0.5-mile walk, each way, along a path that includes both paved and gravel surfaces; the path includes a moderately steep hill, with the incline on the return to the Art Museum. Signs will be placed along the path, which starts at the southeast corner of the Art Museum parking lot.

Visitors may also drive themselves between the Cranbrook Japanese Garden and Cranbrook Art Museum. Parking for the Japanese Garden is located in a gravel parking lot, south of the garden, near 700 Cranbrook Road. The entrance to the gravel parking lot is on the west side of Cranbrook Road, directly opposite Thornlea House (700 Cranbrook House). To drive from the Japanese Garden to the Art Museum, proceed south on Cranbrook Road; at the first traffic light, turn right and drive west on Lone Pine Road; at the first stop sign (500 Lone Pine Road), turn right onto Academy Way and follow the signs to the Art Museum.

For a printable map, which shows both the walking path and automobile route between the Japanese Garden and the Art Museum, please click here.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For additional information in advance of the lecture, please call the Center at 248.645.3307. For information and assistance on the afternoon of the lecture, please call the Cranbrook Art Museum Front Desk at 248.645.3320.

SERVICE ANIMAL POLICY

Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is glad to accommodate visitors accompanied by service animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), on its tours and at its lectures, including those at Cranbrook Art Museum. Under the ADA, a “service animal” is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability. Regretfully, we cannot accommodate visitors accompanied by emotional support animals or pets.

Visitors who will be accompanied by service animals are welcome to call the Center at 248.645.3307 in advance of their scheduled tour so that we may address any questions or concerns.

^{PHOTO CREDITS

Postcard of the Japanese Garden at Coronado Hotel. Courtesy of Kendall Brown.

Hakone Gardens, Saratoga, California. Courtesy of Kendall Brown.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Garden, Green Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. Courtesy of Kendall Brown.

Dr. Kendall Brown. Courtesy of csulb.edu.

Japanese Bon Festival, August 2023. Photography by Shintaro Nabeshima.}