The research evaluates the idea of the Japanese garden in the local context as a place endowed with references based on the construction of a landscape that simultaneously exposes what is understood by Japan and what is Japanese.

In Chile there are at least five public Japanese gardens of dual origin. On the one hand, those given by the Japanese government in gratitude to the country for welcoming its community after World War II: this is the case of the Japanese gardens in the city of Constitución and in Santiago’s Santa Lucía and San Cristóbal hills. On the other, there are those built and funded by mining companies in the north of the country, such as the Japanese Park in Antofagasta and the Kokoro No Niwa garden in La Serena.

In the private sector, the figure of the Japanese Chilean landscape designer Luis Nakagawa Owada (1935-1977) stands out, a key figure in the development of Japanese-style gardens in the eastern sector of Santiago, and his legacy persists in remarkably well-preserved examples such as the garden of the Museum of Fashion in Vitacura and the San Ignacio School in Providencia.