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LECTURE INFO

Friday, April 4, 2025
6:30PM EDT (Doors open at 6:00PM)
Located at the JICC
Send any inquiries to
jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp

In Collaboration with:
Kurisu LLC
Ho'oulu: Fostering Growth

Supported by:
Sun's Garden & Landscaping
The Japan Foundation

Ron Henderson

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Hoichi Kurisu
President and Founder of Kurisu LLC, Hoichi Kurisu has been designing and building gardens for over fifty years. From 1968 to 1972, Hoichi served as Landscape Director for the Japanese Garden Society in Portland, Oregon, and supervised the construction of the Portland Japanese Gardens. He founded Kurisu International, Inc, (now Kurisu LLC) in 1972. The landscape firm has an established reputation for gardens of the highest quality including Anderson Gardens (Rockford, IL) and Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden (Delray Beach, FL). Their unique garden designs create “inner space” for inspiration and healing. Kurisu is a leader at the forefront of creating Japanese-style healing gardens to meet the complex needs of society, which has resulted in Japanese gardens in unlikely places. Kurisu has collaborated with forward-thinking water-treatment facilities to create space for community, and in 2019 completed the first of its kind healing garden inside the maximum-security Oregon State Penitentiary (Salem, Oregon).

Ron Henderson

Thomas Charney
Thomas Charney is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan’s Masters of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program and is currently working as a landscape designer in Michigan. While pursuing his MLA, he continued to deepen his Japanese studies from undergraduate and incorporate Environmental Psychology into his MLA curriculum. As an extension of this, he made contact with Kurisu LLC and arranged the opportunity to study the Memorial Healing Garden at Oregon State Penitentiary. Since presenting his thesis at the end of his graduate studies, he has continued to advocate for the garden’s mission through dissemination of his thesis findings.

Ron Henderson

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

David Komeiji
Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, of Japanese American parents, David Komeiji carries with himself the spirit of aloha and a deep reverence for Indigenous Hawaiian culture. Its values—pilina (relationship), kuleana (responsibility), and mālama (care)—have shaped not just how he lives, but how he creates. Whether he is arranging ikebana, co-creating programs with those inside prison walls, or curating spaces for reflection, he sees his role not as a teacher, but as a coach—someone who helps others connect with ideas, beauty, and their own inner knowing.


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