The Japanese Garden

In the late 1970s, there was a growth in Australia in interest in the Japanese language and culture. With the increasing number of students studying the language at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, (one of the first Queensland schools to offer this language in their curriculum), our school undertook to create a formal relationship agreement in August 1978 with a school in Japan. The two schools pledged to contribute to the mutual understanding and friendship between students of both schools with exchanges and joint activities. Seirinkan High School, then known as Hirayama Gakuen Tsushima Girls High, located in Tsushima City was our first Affiliate Sister School. At that time, this was a girls only school, like BGGS. In the early 1990s, due to changing demographics in that region of Japan, it transitioned to a co educational school. The former owner and Chairman of Seirinkan High School, Mr Tetsuryo Hirayama, decided that a garden was how he would like to commemorate the tenth anniversary of our mutual friendship and exchange. With then Principal Dr Judith Hancock, an agreement was reached by both schools to construct this garden. Mr Hirayama brought his own school gardener, Mr Yoshinori Ishihara, to Australia and his educational colleagues, Mr Ishihara with Mr Masayoshi Uchiyama, both from Sydney, surveyed the area, purchased all the construction materials and equipment to bring the garden to life on our campus. Mr Ishihara, familiar in his grey jodhpurs, carefully selected every rock and, as if sculpting a work of art, carefully determined the placement and orientation of each.

1988 Installation by Yoshinori Ishihara

The garden was formally opened on 4 th August 1988 by Principal, Judith Hancock, with a small ceremony in the presence of Mr Hirayama, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Macrae Grassie, and the Japanese Vice Consul to Brisbane. In a reciprocal gesture, Brisbane Girls Grammar School awarded a gold medallion to the student of Tsushima Girls High School who received the highest marks in English language. The award was to encourage and stimulate even greater interest in the study of English.