Green thumb or not, Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto has been busy recently working to transform another one of his Kahala Avenue home lots into a public garden — this one a Japanese tea garden.

The 80-year-old enigmatic real estate investor was spotted last week overseeing placement of stone lanterns and pagoda statues along with some shrubs on one of his 20-odd properties that line the tony avenue largely dotted with gated mansions between Diamond Head and the Kahala Hotel.

Some 17 statues — a few close to 18 feet tall — have been positioned around the roughly 2-acre oceanfront property, most of which was once the estate of the late Hawaii resort developer Chris Hemmeter.

Kawamoto bought the site in 2005 and 2006 for a combined $30 million during an acquisition spree in which he paid close to $165 million for almost 30 homes on Kahala Avenue over the past 10 years.

The purchases were part of a plan Kawamoto unveiled in 2006 to “release my creativity” and develop at least 20 properties “in my own image with specific themes.”

Kawamoto could not be reached for comment Tuesday or Wednesday.

Part of the plan he dubbed “Kahala Avenue Mission” was to rent nine homes to nine Native Hawaiian families for $150 to $200 a month, though complaints over housing discrimination led Kawamoto to curtail the plan and provide three Hawaiian families with free residences since 2007.

The other element of the plan was to create art and garden museums. “In order to make this beautiful street, all the houses and gardens will be lit up in the evening so that people can enjoy the view at their own leisure,” Kawamoto said in a written statement in 2006.

But the transformation hasn’t been smooth or pretty. Kawamoto crudely broke down portions of walls fronting the street, leaving rubble laying about. He also filled in swimming pools, he said for liability reasons, and often let vegetation grow wild. Some of his homes fell into disrepair and racked up city fines. Over several years, Kawamoto demolished several homes.

In 2008, Kawamoto provided an update on his plan for the Hemmeter estate, saying it will be “reborn, becoming one of the most beautiful garden museums.” He tore down the mansion in 2009. The mansion was regarded as one of the most opulent homes in Hawaii when it was built in the late 1980s and included two buildings with a combined 8,547 square feet of space.

Kawamoto, in an interview in January, said he would make the property into an oceanfront Japanese tea garden, across the street from two homes he owns that would house a collection of Japanese pottery.

Farther down Kahala Avenue toward Diamond Head, Kawamoto began work last year converting five adjacent lots into a statue garden, populated with more than 30 marble Greek goddess and bronze lion statues. One remaining home on that property, a mansion with blue roof tiles, is slated to become a museum showcasing a collection of European art.

Some local residents say they like the statues or the view of the ocean present through the European garden property. But others view the statues, some of which are nude, as tasteless or offensive, and accuse Kawamoto of trying to disturb the community he once called “a luxurious place for the special people.”

“When I go by his property I just close my eyes and pretend it’s not happening,” said Richard Turbin, a local attorney and Kahala resident. “It’s such a visual pollution and just a shame.”

Turbin, who lives next to the old Hemmeter estate, said the European garden has degraded the neighborhood. He doesn’t have anything kinder to say about the evolving Japanese garden.

“There’s nothing more beautiful than a Japanese garden,” Turbin said. “But a Japanese garden is created with a lot of sensitivity and attention to aesthetics. What (Kawamoto) has there is not a Japanese garden, it’s something a child would design. It’s not tasteful. It’s not elegant. The pagodas look pretty cheap. It’s a mess. It’s like something is emerging from the ruins.”

Stone lanterns, or ishidoro in Japanese, were introduced to Japan via Korea and China in the sixth century A.D., and were initially used as an offering at temples and shrines, according to Mark Schumacher, author of the online A to Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Statuary. Stone lanterns were later employed for the practical purpose of lighting the grounds of religious precincts, and around the 16th century started being used in the gardens of tea houses and private residences.
Pagodas are another popular stone statue dating back centuries and modeled after Buddhist temples.

On Kawamoto’s property the statues are arranged largely alongside what appear to be two planned paths leading into the site from the street. Some shrubs have been planted in the midst of what’s left of a broken-down rock wall. Most of the interior of the parcel is dirt, rock and untended vegetation.

One remnant from Hemmeter’s estate that still remains is a dry fountain in a driveway for the now-gone palatial home.