Plum Branches accent new Japanese Garden gates.

Carpenters in the Japanese (Daiku Dojo) tradition are true artists. Their joinery techniques and soulful appreciation of woods make them special within their craft, which has been honed and perfected over more than a millennium. The technique uses no power tools.

Jay van Arsdale, lead carpenter for the project and a Daiku teacher at Laney College (perhaps the only class in the world taught outside Japan) understands that the new fence is an extraordinary gift to the carpenters, Gardens and Oakland. “This fence exemplifies personal learning and community service. This is something the carpenters will show their grandchildren; it is their legacy,” said van Arsdale.

The Japanese Garden fence was made possible by a grant from the Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation, and support from the Friends of the Japanese Garden. Carpenters for the project are van Arsdale’s Laney College students. Van Arsdale has studied and taught Daiku Dojo for more than 25 years. For more information about Daiku Dojo, visit, www.daikudojo.org.

Dick Austin, Friends of the Japanese Gardens, and Jay van Arsdale, Daiku artist, stand between a recently completed fence section and the previous fence.