Nitobe Memorial Garden: A garden that bridges worlds

At UBC’s Nitobe Memorial Garden, curator Ryo Sugiyama tends a living bridge between Japan and Canada—where light, stillness and cultures meet.

Brian Helberg

Oct 21, 2025

Ryo Sugiyama standing in the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC, surrounded by lush greenery and a stone pagoda.

At first light, the Nitobe Memorial Garden breathes in silence. Dew settles on stone lanterns and soft moss. The pond lies still, a mirror for the pale sky. Among the maples, a figure moves slowly, checking branches, brushing leaves from a path and pausing to listen.

“That’s my favourite moment,” says Ryo Sugiyama, the garden curator. “It’s so quiet when it’s just me and the garden before anyone comes in. I can see the work I’ve done and the work I should do.”

Where East meets West

On the western edge of UBC’s campus, the Nitobe Memorial Garden stands as both a work of landscape art and a gesture of friendship between Japan and Canada.

Created in memory of Dr. Inazo Nitobe, a diplomat and scholar who sought to bridge cultures across the Pacific, the garden design reflects that vision. The central pond represents the Pacific Ocean. On one side grow maples from Japan. On the other, native maples from B.C. A wooden bridge connects them.

“Dr. Nitobe wanted to build understanding between East and West,” says Sugiyama. “We follow that idea here by mixing native plants to B.C. and Japanese plants while keeping the spirit and feeling of a traditional Japanese garden.”

Two visitors stand on a small island surrounded by a reflective pond in the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC, framed by vibrant green trees and soft morning light

A gardener’s path

Sugiyama never planned to spend his days trimming trees in Vancouver. Originally from Japan, he studied horticulture and environmental science at Chiba University. One of his professors had been a disciple of Kannosuke Mori, the original designer of the Nitobe Garden.

“My wife and I moved to Vancouver in the early 2000s,” says Sugiyama. “We visited the garden in 2005 and met the curator. Years later, he called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to take over his role. It was a surprise, but also a great honour.”

He accepted, and in 2010 become the garden’s sole full-time caretaker. “When I’m away, staff from the UBC Botanical Garden help out,” he says. “But most days, it’s just me and the garden.”

Shaping light and space

A Japanese garden is never finished. Every branch, every reflection, is shaped by hand.

“Here, the climate changes everything,” Sugiyama says. “In Japan, we prune in the dry winter. In Vancouver, the rain makes that impossible. The trees grow faster here, too, so we have to adapt.”

His approach is precise but invisible. “It’s not about control,” he says. “It’s about creating space for air, for light and for movement. You remove just enough so that the garden feels natural, like it grew that way on its own.”

“A wooden bridge arches over a still pond in the Nitobe Memorial Garden at UBC, surrounded by lush trees whose reflections shimmer on the water’s surface.

Stillness that endures

Though the work is constant, the reward is quiet and human. Visitors don’t always know the effort behind what they see, but they feel it. The pond reflects the sky and trees, and a single bridge links two worlds—just as Dr. Nitobe once hoped.

“My goal is to have visitors leave with a warm, peaceful feeling,” says Sugiyama. “I just want them to feel better leaving than when they arrive. That’s the most rewarding part of my day.”

The Nitobe Garden is located at 1895 Lower Mall on the Vancouver Campus and is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Ticket information can be found here.