Japanese Gardens: Tranquility, Simplicity, Harmony

by Geeta K. Mehta, Kimie Tada, Noboru Murata (Photographer)

At the heart of a Japanese garden is harmony with nature. More than simply a landscape of trees and flowering shrubs, a Japanese garden provides a place of serenity and rest, filled with peaceful spots that lend themselves to meditation and contemplation. Japanese Gardens celebrates and illustrates this ideal, showcasing the exquisite natural beauty of more than 20 quintessentially Japanese gardens-big and small, urban and rural, traditional and contemporary

.The expert author-and-photographer team behind this book excels at capturing and explaining the essential elements and techniques that distinguish Japanese gardens from those of other countries. The featured sites range from large feudal period gardens, temple gardens and private and countryside gardens to mountain flower gardens, tea gardens and gardens devoted to miniature bonsai.

Genres: Gardening, Japan, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2008

Reviews

[Margo Oka]

First time ever reading a “coffee table book”.

The pictures in this book were so beautiful. Sometimes I would turn the page and say “wow” out loud.

Most of the descriptions were a little sparse in my opinion. I don’t think the intended way to experience this book is to read it straight through. There were a lot of repetitive descriptions. Lots of “this is a samurai water basin which is taller than a normal water basin” and “this garden uses shakkei or ‘borrowed scenery’” and “these lanterns are wrapped in straw to protect them from cracking in winter” that were repeated over and over again. Despite that however this book was still incredibly interesting! And I have a lot of things I want visit it read more about in the future.

I’ve been reading a lot of books about tea, sumi-e, etc. and it’s interesting how related these topics are and how much zen buddhism has influenced all of them.

One thing I found funny in this book was how it gives the impression that garden designing / the general wabi sabi concept is very neurotic. You have to put so much effort into getting something to look “natural” and like you didn’t try very hard. I enjoyed reading about what feature of the garden was actually incredibly deeply thought out despite not obviously seeming so. It’s truly such a skill to make a garden look so effortless.

[Rhys Thomas]

I've had an interest in Japanese and Chinese gardens ever since I was a child and first saw one in Bryn Garw House. Another early memory of these mysterious and beautiful places came from a classic episode of Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers where the eponymous chipmunks went to help an Emperor who had misplaced his argyle sweaters, if I remember correctly. More recently I found a great example of a Japanese garden in Clyne Gardens, near Swansea. I liked nothing more than watching the waterfall from the moon-shaped bridge listening to The Shins. Perfect.

Because I was writing a story about a man who became a landscape gardener in Japan I hired out "Japanese Gardens: Tranquillity, Simplicity, Harmony" from the library and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this book. I say experience because this is more than a read. It’s layout of photographs and gently written text can be enjoyed of an afternoon. I spent many minutes looking at each photo and imagining how nice it would be to one day visit the great gardens of Japan that are on display in this book.

The philosophy of Japanese gardens is also explained here, from the world view of wabi-sabi (which celebrates understatement, asymmetry and imperfection) to the art of tea, to ultimate goal of higher consciousness. Japanese gardens are places to lose oneself in eternal reflection and in a way this book gets you halfway there. With a little imagination you can dive into the pages and absorb their delights, as I did one evening whilst sipping tea from my recently purchased Wills and Kate commemorative mug and eating a special edition "royal wedding" donut from Krispy Kreme. Wonderful.

[Ambrose Miles]

Great book! Great photography! I have visited many of these gardens, several many times throughout the 1970’s.
They are gardens of little change, if any.
The only drawback about the book is the choice of print used for the photo captions, they are so light they are hard on the eyes, so I stopped trying to read them.

[Kyle]

I appreciate the history but the book would have benefited from more photos that displayed the points the author was trying to highlight. While there were many good photos in this book, a lot was left to the reader's imagination.

[Julieanne]

If you've ever wanted to learn about the history and design of Japanese gardens, this is probably the best book there is to do so. The book contains beautiful color photographs that accompanies information about each garden included in the book.

[Paul]

A valuable introduction for all who love the Japanese culture. Worth try this book!

[Serge Pierro]

A nice book for those who have an interest in Japanese Gardens. Several different types are presented with many photos that showcase their uniqueness. Each garden is presented with its history - often going back several hundred years - and an explanation as to its philosophy and construction elements. There are several outstanding examples, including one that features Bonsai.

[Tonya Mathis]

Inspiring. Beautiful. Peaceful. To have a garden/yard like that to call your own. But oh the work to keep it looking like that....