CEOTAKASHI KAMEI

Born and raised in Tokyo, Takashi’s story as a Japanese gardener started when he was just 19. Young and ambitious, he knocked on the door of a small, local gardening company in his neighbourhood. He was deeply moved and very quickly fell in love with the work of Japanese gardening with its traditions and authenticity.

Just six years after starting his life as a gardener, he achieved the first of his major childhood dreams of being a CEO of his own company. After opening the business, Takashi has continued to support and inspire those around him, cultivating a strong and passionate community across an array of industries. 30 years of experience later, he has never lost his passion about gardening and living an interesting life. Kameizoen is where he accomplishes his goals of supporting young gardeners and spreading the culture of Japanese gardening within Japan and overseas.

People describe Takashi as curious, friendly, and ambitious. He is often compared to a fish like tuna, which is a Japanese metaphor for someone who is energetic and never stops moving forward.

Takashi is an avid sports lover, often playing sports like Golf, American Football, Futsal, and Soccer. Another of Takashi’s dreams was sponsoring a sports team, which he achieved in 2020 by sponsoring the Futsal team Ligare Tokyo.

Banto（Head Gardener）MASAMITSU INOUE

Born and raised in Kaga, also known as Ninja Village, Japan, Masamitsu grew up in a family of gardeners. Masamitsu’s family has run a Japanese gardening company for generations. Masamitsu has always loved gardening, attending university to study landscaping so that he may one day inherit his family’s company. He met Takashi, the owner of Kameizoen, through university, becoming his apprentice soon after. He is Kameizoen’s 番頭（Banto）, the worker who is most skilled and experienced in gardening.

When Takashi first introduced the idea of starting a business in Melbourne, Masamitsu put his hand up to move to Melbourne and run it. Since first arriving in Melbourne in 2019, Masamitsu has built a strong community throughout Melbourne.

Masamitsu is shy at first, but very warm and humorous when people get to know him. Like Takashi, he loves sports, often playing baseball and going snowboarding. People often describe Masamitsu as a samurai, as he embodies the polite, reserved, and driven nature which make samurai so famous.