A Garden Named for a Sister City
Kushiro Park sits inside Burnaby Mountain Park, on the western slope where the forest opens up to a wide lawn and a sweeping view of the inlet. Most people who wander through it are actually headed somewhere else, toward the viewpoint or the rose garden, and stumble onto the park almost by accident. That’s part of its charm. There’s no gate, no ticket booth, and no sign shouting for attention. Just a quiet stretch of grass with something unusual standing on it.
The park takes its name from Kushiro, a city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido that has been Burnaby’s sister city since 1965. The relationship began under then-mayor Alan Emmott and has been marked over the decades with cultural exchanges, commemorative visits, and a handful of physical landmarks around the city. This patch of Burnaby Mountain is the most striking of them.
Playground of the Gods
The reason people stop here is a cluster of carved wooden poles known as Kamui Mintara, which translates roughly to “playground of the gods.” It was carved by Nuburi Toko, an Ainu woodcarver from Kushiro, along with his son Shusei, and raised on the mountain in 1990 to mark 25 years of the Burnaby-Kushiro relationship. The installation includes 25 large totems built from more than 100 logs in total.
Visually, the poles resemble Northwest Coast totem poles, and plenty of visitors assume that’s exactly what they are. They’re not. The Ainu are an Indigenous people from northern Japan, and their carving tradition is entirely separate from the totem pole traditions of the Pacific Northwest. Toko was inspired by Northwest Coast carving during his visits to British Columbia, and borrowed the form to tell a distinctly Ainu story: gods, animals, and people sharing the same landscape. Look closely and you’ll pick out a bear, an owl, a salmon, and an orca among the figures.
The park itself wasn’t formally named Kushiro Park until 2015, when the area around the sculptures was renamed to mark the 50th anniversary of the sister-city relationship.
Gardens on the Mountainside
The land around Kamui Mintara is planted with seasonal flower beds that shift with the calendar, and the park connects directly to the much larger Centennial Rose Garden nearby, home to hundreds of rose bushes at peak bloom in late spring and summer. A short walk in the other direction leads to Horizons restaurant and the main lookout, so a stop at Kushiro Park fits naturally into a longer loop around the mountain rather than standing as a destination on its own.
Spring Blooms
Spring is when the beds around the sculptures fill in with tulips, adding a splash of colour against the weathered wood of the poles. Combined with the cherry blossoms that appear elsewhere on Burnaby Mountain, it’s one of the better times of year to bring a camera. The plantings are maintained by the City of Burnaby, so timing shifts slightly year to year depending on the weather.
A quiet lawn, a set of carved poles, and a view of the inlet, easy to miss and hard to forget once you’ve found it.
Photo Gallery
Frequently Asked Questions
Kushiro Park is a smaller area within Burnaby Mountain Park, centred on the Kamui Mintara sculptures. Burnaby Mountain Park is the larger public park that also includes the Centennial Rose Garden, viewpoint, and Horizons restaurant.
No. Kushiro Park, like the rest of Burnaby Mountain Park, is free to visit.
Take the SkyTrain to Production Way-University Station, then transfer to bus 145 or 144, both of which run to the SFU Exchange at the top of the mountain. From there it’s a short walk to the park.
They look similar but they’re not Northwest Coast totem poles. The sculptures were carved by Ainu artists from Kushiro, Japan, and represent a separate Indigenous tradition and story.
Yes, leashed dogs are allowed throughout Burnaby Mountain Park, including Kushiro Park.
Late afternoon and sunset give the best light on the sculptures. For flowers, aim for spring when the tulip beds are in bloom, or late spring into summer for the nearby rose garden.
Explore More of Burnaby
Kushiro Park is one stop on Burnaby Mountain. See more parks, gardens, and things to do across the city.
Visit the Burnaby Guide