Guests feed the fish during the Koi Garden dedication ceremony on The Woodlands Waterway. Photo by Jerry BakerThe newest park in The Woodlands Town Center offers a place for peace and tranquility among the hustle and bustle of a growing downtown.

After a delay of more than a year, the Koi Garden on The Woodlands Waterway debuted Thursday, an Asian-inspired oasis built on two islands in front of Waterway Loft II. It features a 60,000 gallons koi pond with 33 fish, one of the largest of its kind outside public arboreta or garden, and a unique wall and screen design that leads through tropical gardens with an open space at its center.

“It’s been a long journey to get to this place,” said Alex Sutton, co-president of The Woodlands Development Co. “When we built the waterway, we wanted it to be a vibrant place. But we wanted to have a place with a sense of calm and peace in the middle of the waterway.”

The Koi Garden, designed by SLA Studio Land, looked to the East for its inspiration, including its overall design, a hidden interplay between circles and squares, common themes is Buddism and Taoism. The water represents the Ying, or female, and stone represents the Yang, or male. It is surrounded by timber bamboo, which will grow 30 to 50 feet to enclose the area.

It includes a labyrinth of bridges, walls and screens to distinguish areas within the park and create vistas to either a tropical bamboo forest or windows to the mid-rise buildings around Waterway Square.

“It was built on an angle to create a long vista and to have much larger spaces than you would have had,” said David Smith, a principal in SLA Studio Land who designed the park. “The stone creates to circle, an expression of the heavens. The square represents the earth, where heaven and earth home together. You have to go through and around the garden to see the geometry of the square and circle.”

The centerpiece of the garden is a large koi pond, a dark shaded channel bordered by vegetated shallow bogs. The bogs provide a filtering system to clean the water, while the dark canals create a dramatic backdrop for the colorful fish.

The 33 koi were handpicked and imported from Japan. A revered fish in Japan, it represents strength and perseverance. In fact, on Children’s Day in Japan, parents fly a koi flag for each member of their family outside their homes, said Brett Rowley, a fisheries biologist from Bret Fish Farm, who supplies the koi for the garden.

“They add a unique beauty and grace,” Rowley said.

Brenna Scannell, 17, a junior at The Woodlands High School and a member of the school's Japanese Club, performs a Soran dance during the Koi Garden dedication ceremony on The Woodlands Waterway. Photo by Jerry BakerTo emphasize the fish, the opening day ceremony featured a dramatic dance by the Japanese Club of The Woodlands High School highlighting the fishing tradition of the country.

The garden includes an open lawn area, adorned by several large boulders, built from the same stone that adorns the entrance to The Woodlands. Its garden features many plant species, including water lilies, iris, sweet flag, Boston ivy, camellia, rush and ginger.

In addition to the Koi Garden, a pedestrian corridor with Asian themed screens was built nearby to connect the space to neighborhoods surrounding the waterway. A giant arch at its entrance bears two ancient proverbs, “Enough Pails of Water….A River” and “The Journey is the Reward.

The Koi Garden will be open daily from dawn until dusk. It is owned by The Woodlands Development Co, but will be maintained by The Woodlands Township. While the township will decide the park’s overall use, Welbes envisions that programming there will be minimal.

“I think there will be less programming here,” Sutton said. “We want to maintain the objective of calm. This is kind of an escape.”

Koi: The Colors of Japan

An Asian inspired Koi Garden opened Thursday on The Woodlands Waterway. It features a 60,000 gallon koi pond, as well as a unique wall and screen design that leads through tropical gardens build on two islands in front of Waterway Loft II.

The koi, all a piece of living artwork, were hand selected and imported from Japan. The 33 fish offer a variety of styles, which all relate back to their Japanese culture. Following are descriptions of the types of koi that can be found in the garden.

Kohaku-white with red pattern, it is said koi begin and end with Kohaku.

Sanke-white with red and black pattern, the name refers to period in Japanese history the breed first appeared.

Showa-black with white and red pattern, similar to the sanke but usually with more black. A more modern breed.

Those three constitute what is known as the “Gosanke” or “Big Three” highly refined breeds. The name “Gosanke” refers to the three families of the Japanese Shogunate.

Ginrin-the name refers to shiny, diamond like scales as seen on the breeds listed above (among others). You can tell the ginrin types by the sparkle their scales have in the sunlight.

Goshiki-five colors, gray with red pattern, use your imagination to get the other three colors (brown, indigo, white).

Yamabuki Ogon-solid yellow with burnished metallic (shiny) skin, the fins are reflectively shiny as well.

Doitsu-literally Japanese for “German” doitsu koi have few or no scales and come in most varieties.

Source: The Woodlands Development Co.