It has been my distinct pleasure and privilege to have hosted tours and docent training at The Contemporary Museum's magnificent gardens in Makiki Heights.

As at other museums, visitors will find diverse interpretations of current exhibitions. What you don't get at every other museum, though, is the artistic aesthetics of its gardens.

The Contemporary Museum's gardens are called Nu'umealani (heavenly terrace). A historical reference for nu'umealani, as a mythical sacred homeland of the gods, is found in Chant 9 of "The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant," as translated by Martha Warren Beckwith.

The gardens were originally landscaped between 1928 and 1941 by the Rev. K.H. Inagaki, a Christian minister of Japanese ancestry, who was rendered a semi-invalid by an auto accident. Inagaki orchestrated every minute facet of the landscaping from his wheelchair.

Inagaki incorporated the Japanese doctrine of interpreting shizen, or nature. To construct a garden by Japanese principles translates "to arrange rocks." Japanese gardens use rocks as functional stones, pathways, edge stones and as landscape boulders. Rocks are exercised in subtle ways to evoke the qualities of the natural landscape by geologic expression. Inagaki painstakingly selected the rocks and their placement at what was then a residence.

He used nonflowering plants to highlight the rocks and act as the mise en scene (backdrop). He transformed a barren ravine into a classic Japanese stroll garden.

A Japanese stroll garden places the emphasis on the path. Such gardens emanated from the 17th to 19th centuries, when travel throughout the Japanese countryside was severely curtailed by the central government. Without the luxury and freedom of travel, lords created private gardens, where "excursions" could be explored.

The paths of the museum's stroll garden elicit the sense of embarking on a journey. The voyage is designed to transcend time and place, to allow those who circumambulate the paths to meditate and experience harmony. The speed and cadence of movement through a stroll garden is determined by the design of the path and the composition of its surface. The position in which you hold your head — movement and vision by which the garden is revealed — is defined by path placement and materials from which it is created.

Visual balance is also central to path designation in a stroll garden. Balance by Japanese tenets lies in asymmetry and dynamics. The line of the path meanders, or unravels in a complex series of semi-straight sections that meet each other obliquely. An enchanting sense of anticipation lies ahead, just beyond vision. Like the unrolling of a scroll, the garden extends teasing view planes and spatial vibrancy.

From 1979 to 1980, the gardens were resuscitated by Honolulu landscape architect James C. Hubbard. During the late 1990s, Kahalu'u-based landscape architect Leland Miyano added his brush strokes to the gardens.

Stroll through the front gates of the museum and drench yourself in the captivating view of Diamond Head, framed by majestic monkeypod branches. Absorb the graceful splendor of the inland sea of green grass lawn. Towering neighbors of the monkeypod include variegated opiuma, macadamia, lemon eucalyptus, breadfruit, kukui, palms and an understory of botanical delights.

The stroll garden fulfills its mission as a cathedral of meditation. Patrons discover the garden for spiritual revitalization, for repose and for discovery. Human batteries are recharged for a reluctant return to the outside urban world.

The museum's upcoming ArtSpree, on July 14, is a fantastic opportunity to discover this oasis.

I suggest you further visit the museum another day and cherish your personal solitude and peace. The contemplative natural beauty of the stroll garden is on par with anything inside its galleries.