Product Description

The Japanese garden designer, like the poet, creates a theater for the wind to speak, and asks only that we listen. This book presents the essential concepts that garden designers have employed through the centuries and the knowledge necessary to create these living sculptures, these sacred spaces, these ethereal and graceful gardens of Japan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #984318 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

From Library Journal
A landscape architect and garden designer working in Japan, Keane here offers a history of the Japanese garden over 20 centuries, showing how society, politics, religion, art, and the tea ceremony have contributed to the structure and elements of these beautiful retreats. He also includes chapters on design principles and techniques, explaining, for instance, how individual aspects such as rock, sand, plants, and bridges embody the symbolism of the gardens. This comprehensive book includes not only excellent full-color photography but detailed plans of the various types of gardens. An extensive glossary, a bibliography of books in English and Japanese, and numerous maps are also offered. The text concludes with a timetable mapping the evolution of the garden alongside events in Japanese culture and world history. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Once introduced to Japan's aesthetic sensibilities and philosophical underpinnings, Westerners often develop an appreciation of Japan's traditional gardens. Keane's handsome, explanatory survey, however, offers garden lovers who simply fail to see beauty in Japanese landscapes a rich resource for comprehending this ancient art form. Beautifully written descriptions illuminate historical development, religious and societal associations, and relationships between garden design and other Japanese arts. And Keane's great affinity with his subject, after immersion in Japanese life and the creation of gardens in Japan, affords him the ability to reveal countless subtleties in the acclaimed gardens pictured. In this fascinating commentary, Keane, a thoroughly engaging, insightful observer, clarifies the essence of what occurs when the elements of Japanese design intermingle to form a near perfect realm. Alice Joyce

Review
“A well-written, beautifully illustrated book that cracks the code when it comes to the design principles of Japanese gardening.” -- Watershapes