A Visitor's Guide to the Japanese Garden in Hasselt, Belgium

The Japanese Garden of Hasselt is the largest one of its kind in Europe. This beautiful garden has a surface of 2,5 ha (2.500 m²) and is the result of the bounds of friendship between the cities Itami in Japan and Hasselt in Belgium etablished in 1985. Hasselt presented the city of Itami in Japan with a belfry carillon in 1991 and in return they helped with the construction of the Japanese Garden which reflects the Japanese landscape.  This garden has been built according to a model of the 17th century Japanese tea gardens.

 The Japanese Garden of Hasselt forms an extension of the Kapermolen Park and forms a 115 ha green area from the town center to the city border of Diepenbeek. A walk in the Japanese Garden gives visitors the impression of the Japanese culture and visitors feel they are in Japan instead of Belgium. It is lovely and you can visit this Japanese Garden from the first of April until the end of October for an admission fee of €5,00.

This garden can be divided in an area which adjoins the Western style Kapermolen Park, the central Japanese Garden and a cherry tree park with more than 250 cherry trees. You may notice the Japanese characteristics already in the first area of his Japanese Garden. The respect for the natural environment, the use of the existing trees and shrubs, the creation of vantage- points and the blurring of the garden boundaries results in a mini Japanese mountain landscape.

From there you can go to the central Garden where the Japanese art of horticulture reigns supreme. Typical for this area is the rich use of heavy rocks with a weight between 3 and 5 tons. Rocks are considered to be eternal and one reason why these are used so frequently in this Japanese Garden. Neither nature nor time can change these elements in the garden. The tea house and the ceremony house reflect in the water. Both are built in a 17th century style and can be considered as the architectural pearls of the Japanese Garden of Hasselt.

Before visiting these two buildings you will first encounter a cobbled beach which creates the atmosphere of ebb and flow of a beach. If you walk over the staircase you can visit the water’s edge. In Japanese gardens such as this are perfect to feed the Koi or ornamental carp.

The cherry tree garden is a highlight in the Japanese Garden of Hasselt, especially during blossom season. It is the time of year when Japanese people celebrates Hanami and invite friends for a picnic. Terrace shaped areas have been created under the cherry trees to keep the tradition of the Japanese picnics alive.

From the cherry tree garden, visitors need to climb a few stairs to enter the central garden. It is still a difficult way to go to reach the ceremony house as visitors need to cross cobble stones to arrive at the entrance of the ceremony house and to be careful not to fall in the water. The ceremony house is called Korokan which means a place of rest for travelers. This building is constructed of natural stone, wood, bamboo, clay and paper.

When you walk further, you reach the tea house half way the hill. The ceremony room is surrounded by fixed dark clay walls. Typical for this tea house is the round window providing a clay wall with its lattice of twigs and bamboo trellis in front of the outer window. The tea house is surrounded by pine trees which tend to accord with the basic forms of the miniature tree.

 The waterfall is created to emulate the waterfall in the Tenryuji Temple in the 14th century garden in Kyoto. The horizontal and vertical pattern of the used rocks is typical in this Japanese Garden of Hasselt. The size of the rock is remarkable and weights 14 tons. The splashing sound of the water provides an atmosphere of quietness. The zig zag bridge on the left of the pool is called Yatsuhashi and this kind of bridges is always used in an iris pool. The Iris is, according Japanese traditions, always planted in a pool to memorialize passed friends. From there, you can go back to the Western garden which leads to the Kapermolen Park.

  The Japanese Garden in Hasselt is a popular tourist attraction in the most sociable city of Belgium and may not be missed when you travel to Hasselt. You open yourself for the Japanese culture and get an impression of the beauty of the landscape in Japan. It is lovely and everyone will enjoy a walk in the largest Japanese Garden of Europe.