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Wearing high boots, Yasunori Tochi wades into his pond of waterlilies to pick out fallen leaves. The floating flowers, pink and white, are surrounded by yellow and blue irises; on the shore, a willow tree sways in the breeze. The bucolic scene looks, well, like a painting--a Monet, to be precise. That's no coincidence. Tochi has been re-creating the impressionist's famous Giverny pond in his rice fields on the tiny Japanese island of Nomi, south of Hiroshima in Japan's Inland Sea. Monet was influenced by Japanese prints, calligraphy and paintings. But could the artist ever have imagined such a passionate Japanese fan? "If Monsieur Monet were alive, I would want him to enjoy a cup of green tea and paint my waterlilies," Tochi says.
Turning terraced rice fields into a garden is no easy feat. Over the past 10 years, Tochi, a 62-year-old Town Assembly member in Okimicho (population: 4,000) who also tends a fishing-tool shop, has spent every spare minute working on the project. To plot it out, he bought several books on Monet's gardens and studied the designs. He began digging the pond first by hand, then later purchased a mini excavator. He scoured catalogs for waterlily bulbs and visited different towns to collect water weeds. So far, he has built an atelier and a 500-square-meter pond. On one recent morning he was contemplating how to design the rest of the garden using the existing cherry, bamboo, plum and gingko trees. "I want to have a wisteria trellis and more willow trees around the pond," he says. "And I will be building a Japanese bridge soon, just like the one in Monet's garden."
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Tochi is hardly the first Japanese to be inspired by Monet's waterlilies. There is a Monet garden theme park in southern Japan with a replica of Monet's house, garden paths and a French restaurant. There is also a botanical garden in Aichi prefecture with a reproduction of Monet's pond. And a handful of Japanese museums exhibit his paintings of waterlilies.
But few can match Tochi's zeal. He first got the idea about 14 years ago, when he took up painting to relieve stress. He recalled being moved by a Monet picture of waterlilies in a Tokyo museum, and his plan took shape. Neighbors shook their heads in wonder. Tochi's wife, Sachiko, grew concerned about the household budget; so far he has spent 30 million of their savings on the garden. But arguing with him was no use, so Sachiko took up watercolor painting herself. "Now I see the flowers in a different way," she says. "I know him better now and can appreciate his project."
So can the town of Okimi, which may be getting its very first tourist attraction. Shuzo Yokoyama, deputy mayor, says Tochi's garden is a welcome cultural addition. In early May a national television network did a segment on Tochi's project, and people all over Japan began calling him for directions. "If there is demand, I will have to decide if I will open my garden to the public," he says. He hopes one day to visit Giverny, where he and his wife have never been. "You see, neither of us speak French," he says. But Tochi should know better than anyone that words are not necessary to appreciate Monet's waterlilies.
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