2025 Commendations by the Japanese Ambassador to the US

Commendations by the Japanese Ambassador to the US

On May 1, 2025, Ambassador Shigeo Yamada has decided to award the Ambassador’s Commendation, expressing his appreciation for the following individual who has made outstanding contributions to the exchange between our two countries.

[Individual]

Hoichi Kurisu, Kurisu LLC, Founder & Designer

Mr. Kurisu has designed and built Japanese gardens with the theme of “healing” throughout the United States for the past 50 years. In 2013, Mr. Kurisu designed and created a landscape for the historic Japanese Lantern located in Tidal Basin where First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Iwa Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, planted the first two cherry trees gifted to the city of Washington D.C. from Tokyo city. The cherry trees at the Tidal Basin continue to be a symbol of friendship between Japan and the United States.