| August 12, 2024 |
Hiroshi Sakaguchi
By George Haas
The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (BGLM) main entrance gate was designed and built by Hiroshi Sakaguchi of Occidental, California. Hiroshi is a skilled joinery wood craftsman and “…practices what men in his family have been doing for more than 600 years, the ancient Japanese craft of joinery woodworking, which uses no visible glue, nails or screws.”
Hiroshi is a daiku, an architectural carpenter. He started his own business, Ki Arts (1985), producing fine Japanese furniture and large structures, such as traditional tearooms, bridges and entrance gates. Hiroshi was hired to design and construct the main entrance gate to BGLM in 1999.
Hiroshi described that in Japanese style architecture, the entrance gate is a serious undertaking that symbolizes “the boundary between two worlds.” For the BGLM, that meant someone is crossing over from a public park to a very special and “unique world of bonsai.”
When in 1999, Hiroshi first saw the construction site at BGLM, the perimeter fence was almost complete. He felt the perimeter fence was built too much to American specifications. He would design the main gate based on Japanese culture. It would be modest and not to distract from the high cultural art of bonsai. Bonsai was practiced by high Samurai nobility in Japan from which it gets the reputation of being “a high cultural art form.”
Hiroshi chose to construct a sukiya-style gate. The style was intended not upstage the bonsai. “I am not the star; the bonsai are the stars.” A sukiya-style gate was more simplified and natural in appearance. “… I thought the simple post and beam structure would be a good contrast to the complex twist and turns of bonsai.”
The roof overhangs the gate and is kirizuma-style (ridge or gable). It’s the oldest and simplest of Japanese gates. The roof is considered the most complicated construction portion for the gate. There are two roof sides that connect to the ridge. There is a downward angle to protect the entrance doors from the rain. “I hand carved the two gegyo or wooden ornaments hanging under the gate on each side of the roof.” These features are traditional Japanese. “The roof of a Japanese gate is like “… a crown…” designating the significance of entering. It speaks “Entering here is an important act. Pay attention!”
Hiroshi used traditional gate measurements in proportion width to height. To fill open space after the perimeter fence was constructed, he had to add extension walls on each side of the gate.
The foundation was made with concrete and the footings placed four feet into the ground. Granite stones were placed at the base of the wooden posts. Hiroshi used Port Orford cedar, Western red cedar and redwood in constructing the gate. Port Orford cedar from Oregon is close to the Japanese hinoki cypress used in traditional Japanese construction. Port Orford cedar is dried for one to six years in order to stabilize it from shrinkage. Today, it is very difficult to purchase high quality Port Orford cedar, since most is sent to Japan and China.
Hiroshi relied on traditional joinery, where the work is done in his shop and later brought to the construction site. He works alone mostly and cuts the pieces in his shop, except for the pre-cut red cedar roof shingles.
Hiroshi uses three measuring systems: traditional shaku unit of length, metric and inch. The gate pieces were laid out, cut and shaped accordingly. The joinery was hand cut by saw, hammer and wood chisel, requiring traditional skills. He would hand plane many of the wooden pieces. The work in the shop required a lot longer than assembling the pieces at the construction site. Once the pieces were located on site, Hiroshi constructed the foundation and assembled the gate. The final work involved shingling the roof, attaching the kasugi or decorative wood ornament and installing the doors.
After 25 years, the pre-cut, red cedar roofing shingles were showing signs of wear and tear due to climate conditions. In 2024, Hiroshi was contracted again to repair the roof by installing hand-crafted copper metal panels. The new roof will be resistant to the weather and last for 100 years or more.
