Tigbi 1968

This was the view in 1968 that Akihiko Shimizu, a Japanese Peace Corps Volunteer, saw from the window of the Tiwi Ceramics building that sparked the idea of installing a Japanese Garden in the vacant lot beside it.

He then told Mayor Oriel C. Clutario about his vision and the good mayor was receptive of the idea. They in turn gathered the Barangay Officials of Tigbi as well as other prominent citizens of the town for the project and they responded with a collective effort to make the Japanese garden in the heart of Tiwi a reality.