Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment

No two Japanese gardens are ever the same. The Japanese Zen garden is a work of art equivalent in scale to an installation, but it is also an urban refuge, a setting where we can attain composure and equipoise. It is a place to collect our thoughts, examine deeper feelings, and ponder our responses to managed nature. Zen gardens comprise a sensory as much as a cultural experience. They are multifaceted, satisfying both our subjective and intellectual yearnings. This beautifully-photographed book illustrates a tradition that benefits from a thousand years of applied knowledge. It also demonstrates how contemporary landscaping draws from its history, and reflects on why ancient gardening should be relevant to the lives of people in the twenty-first century. In this beautifully illustrated book, Japanese gardening specialist Stephen Mansfield takes readers on an exploration of the outward forms, underpinning principles, complex use of metaphor and allusion, and beauty and depth that set the Zen garden apart. Readers of his previous book, Japanese Stone Gardens, will find in this new work a worthy companion volume. Japan's Master Gardens is an inspiring, thought-provoking tribute to the landscape design wisdom of the Japanese.