Japan's Master Gardens [ハードカバー]

In his newest book, author and photographer Stephen Mansfield takes us on a tour of 25 gardens in Kyoto, Nara, and Kamakura, including gardens in less-touristed regions such as Okayama, Shizuoka, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Kagawa, Shiga and Okinawa. A variety of gardens are covered, from the modular to the traditional, and in settings ranging from residential, temple, pond, teahouse, landscape to rock and dry gardens. When I first discovered this book, I admit I was skeptical. I wondered if we really needed another book on Japanese gardens. But you won't find any of the "usual suspects" of Japanese gardenry like Ryoanji, Katsura Rikkyu, and other "National Treasures" which have already been given plenty of ink elsewhere. Here, you'll find inspiration and, if you're like me, you'll discover "new" gardens to revitalize your interest in the subject.

In poetic text that is never precious and often illucidating, Mansfield offers detailed descriptions of the outer forms and inner meanings of these varied spaces. He artfully delves into each garden's history, landscaping features and elements, literary and artistic significance, cultural relevance and metaphorical meanings. The book is smartly divided into five sections that help the reader understand and appreciate the gardens they cover: 1. A Sense of Nature, 2. The Modular Garden, 3. Landscape Gardens, 4. Requisitioning Space, 5. Healing Gardens. It also includes a helpful list of historical periods and a comprehensive glossary for those who might be new to the art of the Japanese garden.

Though it could profitably be used by landscape designers, gardeners and architects, this is way more than a possible how-to book if making a Japanese garden is something you aspire to. And, though it is beautiful and could very well be used as a travel guide, it is far more than that as well. Rather, due to its more contemplative approach, this book is akin to a classic like Gouverneur Mosher's "Kyoto: A Contemplative Guide" (Tuttle, 1964), but with the addition of stunning photographs, also taken by Mansfield. The photographs are a revelation--these are not slick, manipulated digital images, but rather, Mansfield deliberately used only 50mm and 124mm lenses so that the camera could record the garden scene much as the human eye would view it.

While countryside and temple gardens are show-stoppingly gorgeous, the somewhat overlooked gardens of Tokyo bloom under Mansfield's insightful eye as well. In an age of hyperconsumption, overcrowding, pollution and waste, Japan's Master Gardens shows us that urban gardens offer precious refuge where time can stand still and humans can become revitalized within the simplicity and artistry of nature, even when on a small scale.

Particularly compelling are the entries on such Tokyo gardens as the Canadian Embassy garden and Shinjuku Gyoen, offering vastly different and often contrasting approaches to landscaping and use of space, light, terrain and materials. I especially appreciated this section as I live in Tokyo, and have often taken its gardens for granted. When the fast pace of the city wears on me, I visit a garden or a shrine with space and greenery and immediately feel at ease. Because of Mansfield's book, I have an even deeper appreciation of these sanctuaries and plan to make a visit to a garden soon with out-of-town visitors. I'll have them read Mansfield's entry on the garden first.

Happily, this book is not a romanticized vision of Japanese gardens and their traditions. Mansfield, a long-term resident of Japan, admits that "Japanese cities can be a shock to the visual senses, with their wastelands of uncoordinated structures and poorly maintained surfaces. Streets, balefully devoid of greenery, disfigured by cobwebs or high-tension wires, often look unfinished. Visual distraction, over-crowding, noise and chemical pollution add to the sense of degradation. Where you might expect to find cities that embody a discreet prosperity, they speak of a poverty of taste. How can gardens survive in such traumatized environments?'

This is an excellent question, one not before asked in such a book. To Mansfield's mind, it is exactly in such environments that gardens can, and must, survive. The challenge is for today's Japanese gardens (indeed, gardens in urban locations around the world) to restore a degree of serenity to the urban landscape. Mansfield shows us that Japan's resourceful landscape designers are well equipped to work with whatever they might have, building on tradition and also departing from it in exciting and innovative ways. He reminds us that the garden is not a final destination, but rather a point of departure for the spirit. This is something Japanese master gardeners understood ages ago, and which today's master gardeners embrace.

When I can't make it to an actual garden to unwind, I'm lucky to be able to open Mansfield's book and be transported just the same.

Japanese classic gardens, at their best, are miniature worlds of mystery combining the twists and turns of earthly life with visions of the eternal. They stand in poetic contrast to the casual profusion of an English garden or the artificial formality of a French garden, with its imposed symmetry and order.
In Japan's Master Gardens, Stephen Mansfield has assembled some of the greatest of Japan's traditional gardens. In addition to his superb photographs, he has provided historical and aesthetic comments that lift the book far above the genre of catalogue to the level of artistic meditation. In reading his descriptions you cannot help but share his sense of wonderment at the genius behind each of twenty-five gardens he has selected for his book, and the unique, inimitable design of each. In addition, he provides references to the links between Japanese garden design and other aspects of Japanese culture such as Zen, the tea cult, scenic landscapes and literary works.
The book's sub-title - "Lessons in Space and Environment" - is certainly appropriate. I warmly recommend this book to anyone interested in garden design, Japanese culture or the place of the spiritual within the forces of nature.
(Hans Brinckmann, author of "Showa Japan" and other books. URL: www.habri.jp)

All I had to see was the photo spread of the bridge over the pond at Ritsurin-Koen garden in Takamatsu City, on pages 82 and 83, and this book had me hooked. Japan has lots of pretty gardens, temples and shrines -- no single book could possibly cover them all -- but I have to give Mr. Mansfield additional points both for his skills with his camera as well as with his word processor. The book, an economical 145 pages, is of manageable dimensions, and yet crammed with useful information about each garden's history, and about what makes it distinctive. There's a good geographic spread of locations on three of the four main Japanese islands, plus Okinawa in the south, and also a judicious mixture in terms of the type of garden, and the seasons in which they were photographed (at least two are shown covered with snow). Chapter 4, "Requisitioning Space," includes the modern garden designed by Shunmyo Matsuno on the 4th floor of Tokyo's Canadian Embassy. Considering the tremendous amount of time and effort that must have gone into the making of this Japan's Master Gardens, this book is also an exceptional value for money.