This DVD is a collection of media, stories, and artifacts from the Japanese American National Museum's exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden (2007). Features include: Mamo's Weeds - A short film directed by Akira Boch and written by acclaimed mystery writer Naomi Hirahara, tells the intriguing story of Mamo Ikeda, a gardener besieged with a destructive weed epidemic and a series of mysterious phone calls from a woman who seems to know personal things about him. Searching for answers, he travels from the Southern California Gardener's Federation to a retro Little Tokyo chop suey house to the lawns of Japanese American neighborhoods, only to discover that the weeds are keys to both his past and his future. The film features the acting talents of Ken Takemoto, Sab Shimono, Rodney Kageyama, Bill Saito, Annie Rollins, Helen Ota, and Robert Covarrubius. Two documentaries - Sam (dir. Margaret Bach, 1971) and I Don't Think I Said Much (dir. Jeff Furumura, 1973), which provide rare glimpses into the lives of two Southern California Japanese American gardeners in the 1970s Mini Docs of Japanese American gardeners and gardens Slide Show of historical artifacts and photographs from the Landscaping America exhibition Total running time: 70 minutes Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden is made possible in part by Presenting Sponsor: The Annenberg Foundation. |
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| Read Naomi Hirahara's article about the making of the film on DiscoverNikkei.org. |
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| Five questions about Japanese-style gardens in the United States and the Japanese American gardeners who created and maintained them. |
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