Torrance, Sister City Try to Calm Teahouse Tempest

The planned Japanese garden in Torrance, the centerpiece of a new city cultural arts center, is supposed to be an idyllic place, with several patios, plants, a fountain, a pond and water tumbling over rocks.

But even before the first stone has been set in place, the garden’s serene tone has been disturbed by controversy.

The tempest is over a teahouse.

On the one hand is Epson America Inc., the Torrance-based affiliate of Seiko Epson Corp. of Japan, which is building the garden at a cost of about $250,000.

On the other is Torrance’s sister city, Kashiwa, Japan.

Kashiwa has offered Torrance the gift of a teahouse for the garden.

But it is not the kind of teahouse envisioned by the Epson architect who designed the garden.

In the middle are city officials, who don’t want to upset either party.

“We’re in a situation where two fine friends of the city are being hurt,” Mayor Katy Geissert said Thursday in a tone of frustration.

City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson said: “What we’re trying to do now is coordinate all these efforts so we can end up with a teahouse and a garden--so that everyone will come away happy.”

The teahouse that Kashiwa wants to give Torrance is called a chashitsu , and would cost between $70,000 and $80,000 . It is a formal closed structure, traditionally used for tea ceremonies, city officials said.

Architects of the 10,000-square-foot garden prefer a more open structure called an azumaya, city officials said. The garden itself will be confined by buildings on all sides, and an open-sided structure has been judged more compatible, Geissert said.

Although Epson says the decision is up to the city, its architect has judged that an open-sided structure is more compatible. A city landscape architect agrees.

The city’s predicament arises from poor communication, several city officials say. Some blame the fact that the Torrance Sister City Assn.--not City Hall--was corresponding with Kashiwa until recently.

City Councilman George Nakano, who helped initiate plans for the Epson garden, said a lack of direct communication between the city manager’s office and Kashiwa officials has been a major problem.

“At this point, the city needs to establish direct communication,” he said.

Officials are also concerned about the origin of the teahouse gift.

The city never asked for it, Geissert and others said.

The request seems to have originated with a member of the Torrance Sister City Assn., a private group that works to maintain relations between Torrance and Kashiwa.

Mikko Haggott-Henson, the association’s president since June, said Friday that in December, 1989, she sent Kashiwa officials a newspaper article about the Japanese garden.

Haggott-Henson said she suggested to Kashiwa officials that “it would be nice to have a teahouse.”

Kashiwa had already offered 200 cherry trees to the city, but that gift was ruled out because of state agricultural restrictions, Haggott-Henson said. She said she suggested the teahouse to Kashiwa officials as an alternative.

Then, last January, the Kashiwa Sister City Committee approved the gift of a teahouse to Torrance to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the sister-city relationship, Haggott-Henson said.

She said she thought the teahouse had Torrance’s blessing because of her discussions with Phil Tilden, capital projects administrator for the city, and with Nakano, who she thought was informing Epson of the plans. But Nakano said Friday that he had no authority to authorize acceptance of the gift.

The Kashiwa Sister City Committee asked for a letter from Torrance requesting the teahouse, so that a delegation of Kashiwa visitors could announce the gift in Torrance last February, Haggott-Henson said. She said she asked Geissert for the letter, but Geissert refused.

“I don’t ask for gifts. That’s not our custom,” Geissert said Friday.

Then the Kashiwa committee asked instead for a letter from the president of the Torrance Sister City Assn. so that the announcement could be made, Haggott-Henson said. Because of time constraints, she said, she could not get the permission of then-President Irene Harter, so she wrote the letter herself, put Harter’s name on it and tried to fax it to Japan.

Haggott-Henson said the letter never arrived, so the announcement was never made.

Later she told Harter what she had done. “She didn’t like it, of course,” she said, “and I apologized.”

An Epson representative said Friday that the discussion of what type of teahouse belongs in the garden “is between Kashiwa and Torrance.” Groundbreaking for the garden is planned for February, with completion by autumn, said the representative, Carolin A. Keith, manager of community relations for Epson America.

City officials say they are now trying to deal directly with Kashiwa. A recent exchange of letters reveals that some differences in perception remain.

Jackson wrote Nov. 27 to the president of the Kashiwa Sister City Committee in Japan, expressing Torrance’s gratitude for the teahouse offer and suggesting that Kashiwa officials talk directly to the architect for Epson.

But a Kashiwa Sister City Committee official wrote Jackson on Dec. 12 that the architect had already faxed a note to Japan, saying “that azumaya (arbor) is a final decision, not chashitsu (teahouse).”

“Frankly speaking, your letters have puzzled me,” the Kashiwa committee official wrote. “We have been planning the teahouse gift project for almost a year, keeping in touch with the Torrance Sister City Assn. We believe that a teahouse is worth enough to be a symbol of the 20th year (of the cities’ relationship).” The letter described the chashitsu as an example of typical Japanese cultural architecture.

Jackson wrote back Dec. 14, saying the city had not been involved in the project until August. He suggested that “it would be most beneficial if the communications and discussions on this matter be directly between my office and you.” He said he has not received a response.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Geissert said, “because Epson has certainly made a very generous and very gracious gift to the city, and Kashiwa is apparently considering doing likewise.”