2nd euroJGA workshop · De Japanske Haver, Broby, Fyn · 4–6 September 2026
It rained on Friday. It rained again on Saturday. Around 580 people came anyway.
Over three days at De Japanske Haver in Broby, on the island of Fyn, two master gardeners from The Garden Society of Japan taught pine pruning, bamboo fence building and Japanese garden culture to between 35 and 50 participants each day, perhaps a third to a half of them were working professionals and many capable amateurs and enthusiasts.
Alongside the workshops, De Japanske Haver ran Japan Days — bonsai, ikebana, tea ceremony, and Japanese food in the café were some of the activities.
The workshops were organised by De Japanske Haver and The Japanese Garden Society of Denmark, made possible by the Society’s engagement in euroJGA.
Given the weather, that is a very good weekend!
Makoto Takahashi and Joko Kurachi taught across all three days, working through the programme as published. Participants came primarily from Denmark, with others from Sweden and Norway — and, encouragingly, some of the Scandinavian visitors are now considering founding societies of their own along the Danish model. That may turn out to be the most durable thing the weekend produced.
Friday, in the rain, on the pines
In the rainy Friday it was indeed important and very helpful that Makoto Takahashi had prepared a presentation about pine pruning with illustrative photos and drawings and printed copies were handed round — a small piece of foresight that mattered enormously once the weather closed in.
During the practical work they deliberately pruned one five-needle pine only half, leaving the two halves side by side on the same tree: the clearest possible demonstration of what the work actually does, and the photograph everyone took home.
Both gardeners taught with an enthusiasm that carried through the interpreter and out into a wet garden.
Sunday, on the bamboo
The Yotsume fence was built in a temporary position rather than its final one, so that participants could get all the way round it — sawing, tying, kneeling in the gravel, correcting their knots. It was finished, built robustly with vertical bamboo poles set into the ground, and it is ready to be moved to its permanent place in the garden.
And the tea
Makoto Takahashi is an Urasenke tea master as well as a gardener, and he found time to perform two temae in the tea house in the tea garden, for the Danish Urasenke group who were making matcha there and for the guests who came. Very few people carry both crafts. Watching the hands that had spent two days inside a pine handle a tea scoop was, for many of us, the moment the whole weekend made sense.
Garden Tour
The visit in Denmark ended with a special tour of The Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen led by the Head Gardener of Tivoli Gardens.
The Japanese gardeners remarked with pleasure on how many people were there and how genuinely interested they were in all the activities
A visit from the Embassy
We were honoured by a visit from three representatives of the Japanese Embassy in Denmark, including Junko Sato, Deputy Head of Mission, who spent time with the Japanese gardeners, with Yuka Itoh of the Organization for Landscape and Urban Green Infrastructure, Peter Dalsgaard of De Japanske Haver and Annelise Larsen of The Japanese Garden Society of Denmark.
Thank you
To Makoto Takahashi, Joko Kurachi and Yuka Itoh, for knowledgeable, generous and thoroughly enjoyable collaboration throughout. To The Garden Society of Japan, and to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, whose support made the workshops possible.
To the Japanese Embassy in Denmark for honouring us with a visit. To Peter Dalsgaard and everyone at De Japanske Haver, and to The Japanese Garden Society of Denmark, who organised and hosted.
To the Danish Urasenke tea ceremony group, to the bonsai association of Fyn, and to Harumi Dahl for a beautiful ikebana exhibition — all three turned a workshop into an occasion. To the interpreter, who carried three days of teaching from Japanese into Danish.
And to everyone who came, stood in the rain, and asked good questions.
We would very much like to continue this cooperation and exchange in the years to come.
Links of interest: