The Japanese-style Garden at Hillwood is one of the last remaining exmaples of the type of oriental gardens influenced by the reintroduction of the Japanese culture to America during the 1950s.  Shogo J. Myaida, a garden designer who became a naturalized US citizen in the 1920s when Japanese culture was first popular among the American elite, was hired to complete the design.  Myaida readily adopted the American culture and developed a style of garden construction that blended the traditions of Japanese architecture and garden design with the practicality of American tastes.

The gardens at Hillwood also feature a number of Japanese flowering cherry trees, as well as Japanese camelia, Japanese pieris, Japanese wisteria, and Japanese snowball viburnum which also bloom in the spring.  Hillwood is increasingly becoming a beloved attraction, espeically in the spring season, when it offers an oasis in the heart of northwest Washington.