Peaceful Beauty

By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the October 2025 issue.

By Jeff Banowetz

Visit one of North America’s top Japanese Gardens

Rockford businessman John R. Anderson was on a work trip to Portland, Oregon, in 1978, when his meetings ended earlier than expected. He had a few hours to kill before his flight, so he asked a cab driver to drive him somewhere interesting. They ended up at the Portland Japanese Garden, one of the country’s best examples of natural art form.

Anderson had purchased a wooded lot just north of downtown Rockford and built a home there in 1975. Part of the property was swampy, and he had envisioned creating a Japanese garden of his own, like the ones he’d seen on previous trips to Japan. He had not had any luck, however, in finding someone who could help him. Ads in a Chicago Japanese-language newspaper got no response, and he was unable to use his Japanese business connections to find a designer.

But after seeing the gardens in Portland, he knew what he wanted. He reached out to the designer of the Portland Japanese Garden, Hoichi Kurisu—he found his number in the phone book—and persuaded him to come to Rockford and consider the project. It was the beginning of a decades-long relationship that helped create one of the country’s best examples of a Japanese garden.

Anderson and his wife, Linda, donated the gardens to the Rockford Rotary Charitable Association in 1998, and since then, the Anderson Japanese Gardens (318 Spring Creek Road) have been operated as a nonprofit and open to the public for viewing. The 12-acre property has been rated one of the best Japanese gardens in North America for more than a decade, and each year draws visitors from across the country from May through October.

The garden adheres to the tenets of the traditional art form, which include plants, water, and rocks, according to John Gleason, the organization’s chief operating officer. Other elements include pagodas, stone lanterns, water basins, arbors, and bridges. However, the focus of the design extends beyond the components.

“The thing to understand is when you compare it to, say, a botanical garden or a western garden—where you find that everything is on display from your first observation—a Japanese garden allows you to wander these paths where everything is discovered as you approach it,” Gleason explains. “Everything’s kind of hidden away, and there are these little paths that will guide and create these moments. The way that the garden is designed is in a way to keep you in the moment, whether it’s the sound of the gravel on the path when you’re walking, or the water flowing, or the uneven footing, so that you pay attention to where you’re stepping. A Japanese garden is designed to allow you to completely be immersed in the moment while you’re exploring instead of having everything presented to you right upfront.”

The fall is a popular time to visit, with colors peaking in October. This will also mark the fifth year of its Illuminated event, during which the gardens are open on select evenings from Dec. 4 to Jan. 4. “It gives people a chance to see the gardens at night, and in the winter, two things that we’d never done before,” Gleason says. “It takes place over the holidays, but it isn’t a holiday show. You won’t find gingerbread houses or Santa Claus.”

Instead, they use uplighting to help define the elements of the garden that may sometimes go unnoticed. “It just really helps accentuate the defining characteristics of the Japanese garden and all of the care and pruning and maintenance that the garden crew does on a daily basis,” he says.

John Anderson remains involved with the garden through the organization’s board, and he continues to have input on upcoming projects. “It’s his baby, and he wants to ensure the people are utilizing it as a place for wellness and to get away from everything that’s going on in the world,” Gleason says. He is still very much involved in advocating for the garden and spreading awareness. But he’s continuing to grow it and develop it, and he’s got big ideas. And we get to make them happen.”

For more information, visit andersongardens.org.

Photo: Anderson Gardens