Samaritan Lebanon Gardens Get a Facelift November 20, 2020 All three Samaritan gardens in Lebanon, designed by Hoichi Kurisu of Kurisu LLC, have recently been rejuvenated. The Healing Garden located in the middle of the Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, the entrance garden of the Samaritan Health Sciences Campus and the Boulder Falls Inn campus garden received significant pruning, maintenance and beautification updates by a crew from Kurisu LLC. These Japanese-style gardens have received international recognition and attention with visitors traveling from Chicago, England and Japan to visit Kurisu’s Lebanon gardens. Kurisu has been designing and building gardens for nearly 50 years. “The Healing Gardens are unique works of art to be treasured. They are a source of pride to our community,” said Joanne Nelson, donor and Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation trustee. Hoichi Kurisu was born in Hiroshima, Japan, and witnessed the atomic bomb as a small child. The resilience of the Japanese people and nature’s role in providing hope for the future left a deep impression on Kurisu that influenced his life and work. Kurisu joined his father’s small landscape maintenance business in the San Fernando Valley of California when he arrived in the United States in the mid-1960s. During this time, Kurisu became convinced of the power of nature to meet some of humanity’s most fundamental needs. He returned to Tokyo to study landscape design and construction for four years under distinguished master designer Kenzo Ogata. Kurisu returned to the United States and from 1968 to 1972 he served as landscape director for the Japanese Garden Society in Portland, Oregon, and supervised the construction of the Portland Japanese Gardens. In 1972, he founded Kurisu International, now Kurisu LLC, and has dedicated his life’s work to the mission of healing gardens. Kurisu constructed the three Lebanon gardens in 2004, 2009 and 2013. The recent maintenance project was made possible with gifts to the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, a contribution from Samaritan Health Services and a generous in-kind contribution from Kurisu LLC. For more information or to contribute to the care of the gardens, contact Brandy O’Bannon, executive director of the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, at 541-451-7063 or [email protected].
