Osaka –
World Expos have always been a platform to exhibit not what society is but what society could be. Yet amid the spectacle of the ongoing Osaka Expo, scores of the more than 22 million visitors may have mistakenly assumed that some of its greenest pavilions were made possible by impressive technology and deep-pocketed corporations.
Instead, these expo crowds have seen the work of family-run Ryokukou Garden without realizing it.
Run by the Tanisaki family since 1896, Ryokukou Garden is a landscaping company, plant nursery and farm in the town of Ikeda on the outskirts of Osaka. Eldest son Toshiki, 31, led the company’s expo projects alongside his father, Kenichi, 57, the company head. Toshiki’s mother, Chikako, 56, is responsible for day-to-day maintenance of the pavilion greenery, and his grandfather, Takeshi, 88, originally incorporated the nursery into the family farm more than 50 years ago.
AloJapan.com