Takeo Shiota

Takeo Shiota (塩田 武雄, Shiota Takeo, July 13, 1881 – December 3, 1943) was a Japanese-American landscape architect, best known for his design of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Shiota was born about 40 miles (60 km) outside of Tokyo on July 13, 1881.

In the 1920s he formed a partnership with Thomas S. Rockrise (born Iwahiko Tsumanuma, 1878 - 1936) and conducted business from 366 Fifth Avenue.

Shiota's design blended the ancient hill-and-pond style and the stroll-garden style of the Azuchi–Momoyama period,[3] in which various landscape features are gradually revealed along winding paths.

Its 3 acres (1.2 ha) contain hills, a waterfall, a pond, and an island, all artificially constructed, with wooden bridges, stone lanterns, a viewing pavilion, a torii, and a Shinto shrine (razed by an arsonist in 1937[4] and rebuilt in 1960[5]).

Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden