For decades, Hakone Estate and Gardens has been one of Santa Clara County’s treasures, a traditional Japanese garden nestled away in the hills of Saratoga. Countless people visit every year to see the cherry blossoms in bloom or to just bask in the quiet beauty. It’s one of those places where people say they can’t believe it exists just miles away from jammed freeways and bustling downtowns. But it’s a safe bet that most people don’t know much about its fascinating history.
That’s changing as its story is being told through hundreds of photographs, along with text, in “Hakone Estates and Gardens,” a new volume in the Images of America series published last week. It’s written by two women who know Hakone better than just about anyone: Ann Waltonsmith, chairwoman of the Hakone Foundation and a former Saratoga mayor, and Connie Young Yu, a historian and Hakone Foundation trustee whose family was a part owner of the property in the 1960s.
It begins with Isabel Longdon Stine, whose impressions of the Japan pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition inspired her to turn 15 acres in Saratoga into Hakone. The history continues with Maj. Charles Lee Tilden, who purchased the property from Stine during the Great Depression, when she could no longer afford it, and the six couples — including Connie Young Yu’s family — who purchased it together in 1961 and held it until the city of Saratoga bought the property in 1966. Along the way, the book celebrates other people important to Hakone’s survival, like James Sasaki, who was Hakone’s lead gardener for 30 years, except for the 3½ years he was interned during World War II.
“Throughout a century, the garden survived a national depression, racist policies, and threats of land redevelopment,” Waltonsmith and Yu write in the introduction, noting that the Japanese garden was saved for posterity for 50 years by three sets of owners who were all non-Japanese. “These were extraordinary individuals who pushed back against the prejudice, xenophobia and nativism of their respective times. They possessed a moral compass and gave Hakone its soul.”
BAY AREA SUPPORTS INDIA’S COVID FIGHT: A virtual conversation between International cricket stars Rahul Dravid and Mike Atherton was a huge hit for a good cause last weekend. The chat — moderated by Anshu Jain, president of U.S. financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald — drew more than 350 viewers and raised $20,000 in one hour during “Live Aid India,” a 24-hour marathon fundraiser hosted by Bay Area virtual events platform FeelitLIVE.
The event included appearances by Opera San Jose, the San Jose State University Choraliers, Bollywood dance troupe NachleSF, singer-songwriters Sonam Kalra and Druv Kent, Indian industrialist Nadir Godrej and even more cricket players, coaches and commentators.
Funds raised will go to the Navjyoti India Foundation, a charity founded by Dr. Kiran Bedi which has been working to provide COVID relief and intervention programs in underserved communities in India. Donations will pay for PPE, vaccine awareness and registration drives, nutrition kits and food. You can watch replays (and still donate) at feelit.live/LiveAidIndia.
ARIA READY FOR A RADIO SHOW?: Opera San Jose General Director Khori Dastoor invited me backstage a few weeks ago to check out the production of the company’s May 22 fundraiser, “Sing for Your Supper,” at its Heiman Digital Media Studio in North San Jose. It looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, with bass-baritone Nathan Stark and soprano Maya Kherani — along with other Opera San Jose resident artists — putting on a 1930s radio show, performing hit songs of the time by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin. (I was persuaded to slip into costume for a cameo as an announcer for a commercial break; I will not wait for the Tony nomination.)
The show — directed by Tara Branham — will be free to watch on YouTube at 7 p.m. on May 22, but supporters can get into the spirit of the night with VIP dinners for two, four or six people catered by Le Papillon in San Jose for donations of $500, $1,000 and $1,500. And there’s an auction as well, with items including a California Theatre organ concert, a walk-on role in an upcoming Opera San Jose production and a dinner prepared by Dastoor and served at her Los Altos home. You can get all the details at www.operasj.org/sing-for-your-supper.
