Grand Rapids, Mich. and Boston

It took almost four years, some 4,000 boulders, countless trees and bushes, and massive displacements of earth for Portland-based designer Hoichi Kurisu to reshape eight acres of marshland into a self-contained world. Inaugurated in June, the Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden occupies the northeastern corner of the sprawling Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich. It features waterfalls and bridges, a teahouse and a rock garden, bonsai trees, pagodas and...