Photo Exhibit Highlights Donald Keene’s Ties to Kyu-Furukawa Gardens, with Bonus Section Tracing His Life in Pictures

By Futoshi Mori / Japan News Senior Writer

13:44 JST, March 26, 2025

A photo exhibit about Donald Keene and the Kyu-Furukawa Gardens in Kita Ward, Tokyo, has opened at the Takinogawa Kaikan hall in front of the gardens. Keene, who loved the gardens, moved to an apartment across from them in 1974. He lived there until his death in 2019, frequently taking walks in the gardens. At the hall, 12 photos are on display, and in a separate exhibit, photos and text provide a stroll through Keene’s life.

“Every morning, my father’s routine was to water the plants on this balcony overlooking the garden,” said Keene’s adopted son Seiki, 74, on Tuesday. He had a nostalgic air as he spoke in front of a photo on the second floor of the hall on Tuesday. “He would look at the rose garden first, then walk down to the Japanese-style garden, and then walk around the garden and back to the entrance. That was his usual walking route.”

The 12 photographs include some taken by Seiki, who became part of Keene’s family in 2012, and others in the possession of Kita Ward. In a photo taken in 1974, just after Keene moved to the neighborhood, the trees in the garden are still short, and from his balcony you can see the whole of the Kyu Furukawa Tei residence (now the Otani Museum), designed by Josiah Conder. Over the years, the trees have grown, and in photos taken in the 2010s, the building is no longer visible.

In another photo, taken in front of the Otani Museum in the mid-2010s, Keene is seen smiling happily as he walks beneath his favorite umbrella after a performance by a pianist living in Kita Ward.

By the main entrance of the Takinogawa Kaikan hall, there are 24 photographs and accompanying text that trace Keene’s life. He spent his childhood in New York, served as a language officer in Hawaii, and then became a scholar of Japanese literature.

The exhibitions were organized by Kita Ward to give people a chance to learn about Keene’s daily life in the ward. It is the second in the “My Neighbor Keene Sensei” series, the first installment of which was held last year in the Shimofuri Ginza shopping arcade, where Keene often shopped.

The exhibits will run through May 6 and are open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is free, and as the exhibits are in a public space that is open everyday, they can be viewed even when other parts of Takinogawa Kaikan are closed.