Robert Murase

Murase found roots in his own ancestry where he incorporated the elements that are often found in Japanese gardens and mimicked nature. His signature material was stone, strongly influenced from stone sculptor Isamu Noguchi. In addition, he was greatly influenced by the artistic traditions of the Muromachi Period of 16th century Japan, when Zen flourished (subsequently influencing, transforming or leading to the creation of numerous art forms).

Murase died in July 2005 due to complications of a heart attack. He was survived by his mother, wife, and three children; one of his sons, Scott, is a principal in the Murase Associates landscape architecture firm.

He then returned the United States and moved to Portland, Oregon, where he taught at the University of Oregon's Department of Landscape Architecture for three years before joining EDAW (now AECOM) in 1980. In 1982, he formed Murase Associates in Portland, and opened a Seattle office in 1989. His firm went on to win about 50 design awards. He was named a fellow member of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1994 and was an honorary member of American Institute of Architects, Seattle chapter.

Murase graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1963 with a master's degree in landscape architecture. He interned with Lawrence Halprin and was hired by Royston, Hanamoto, Alley, and Abey (RHAA) in 1965. To gain experience in the landscape architecture field, Murase moved to Japan in 1967, where he maintained a practice for almost 10 years, conducting garden research at Kyoto University.

Robert Murase (September 9, 1938 – July 19, 2005) was an American landscape architect. He worked throughout the Pacific Northwest in the field of landscape design.

Murase was born in San Francisco as a third generation Japanese-American to Tokiichi (George) and Yoneko Murase in 1938. At the age of three, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, Murase and his family were detained along with several thousand San Francisco Bay Area Japanese-Americans at the Tanforan horse-racing track in San Bruno, California before the family were split, with George, Yoneko, and Robert sent to internment at Topaz while his widowed grandmother (Kuni) and aunts Mieko and Grace were sent to Tule Lake. At the time, his three uncles were serving in the military. They returned to San Francisco at the end of World World II.