Japanese Inspired Gardens

From the Publisher: Covering the basic principles, aesthetics, and design practices of Japanese gardens, this book provides the practical information gardeners need to adapt these ideals to North American landscapes and sensibilities. Not a step-by-step construction manual, it teaches the fundamental principles of integrating house, garden, and landscape by making art from simple groupings of rocks, plants, and water and opening Japanese symbolism to elements with universal significance, such as water and paths. Included is an extensive encyclopedia of appropriate plants to use based on creating and defining particular eco-regions.

Japanese-inspired gardens—which distill the natural world so as to foster a sense of calm and promote reflection—have delighted Americans for more than a century. This magnificent guide from the world-famous Brooklyn Botanical Garden offers in-depth, beautifully photographed profiles of eight of the most iconic and best-regarded Japanese-style public gardens in the United States. Featuring commentary by the top names in the field, it contains practical information for home gardeners on how to create and care for a Japanese-inspired garden, and will enlighten those who want a deeper understanding of the intent behind the design.

A practical guide to planning and constructing a Japanese garden. Step-by-step instructions explain every facet, from displaying plants and rocks to mastering drainage and lighting, to creating bamboo fences and hedges.

Filled with gorgeous photographs, this book explains the theory, history, and intricacies of Japanese gardening. The creation of a Japanese garden combines respect for nature with adherence to simple principles of aesthetics and structure. In Japanese Garden Design, landscape architect Marc Peter Keane presents the history and development of the classical metaphors that underlie all Japanese gardens. Keane describes the influences of Confucian, Shinto and Buddhist principles that have linked poetry and philosophy to the tangible metaphor of the garden in Japanese culture. Creative inspiration is found in the prehistoric origin of Japanese concepts of nature; the gardens of Heian aristocrats; the world-renowned Zen garden, or rock garden; the tea garden; courtyard garden; and stroll garden. Detailed explanations of basic design concepts identify and interpret the symbolism of various garden forms and demonstrate these principles in use today in Japanese landscape architecture. Topics include: Design Principles Design Techniques Design Elements Godspirit in Nature Poetry in Paradise The Art of Emptiness Spiritual Passage Private Niches A Collector's Park

This book offers detailed step-by-step advice on how to design and construct Japanese gardens in various environments, using only materials widely available in the West.

Over the years, Japanese gardeners have fine-tuned a distinctive set of pruning techniques that coax out the essential characters of their garden trees, or niwaki. In this highly practical book, Western gardeners are encouraged to draw upon the techniques and sculpt their own garden trees to unique effect. After first discussing the principles that underpin the techniques, the author offers in-depth guidelines for shaping pines, azaleas, conifers, broadleaved evergreens, bamboos and deciduous trees. Throughout the text, step-by-step illustrations accompany the instructions, while abundant photographs and anecdotes bring the ideas surrounding niwaki vividly to life.

Japanese gardens are found throughout the world today—their unique forms now considered a universal art form. This stunning Japanese gardening book examines the work of five leading landscape architects in North America who are exploring the extraordinary power of Japanese-style garden design to create an immersive experience promoting personal and social well-being. Master garden designers Hoichi Kurisu, Takeo Uesugi, David Slawson, Shin Abe and Marc Keane have each interpreted the style and meaning of the Japanese garden in unique ways in their innovative designs for private, commercial and public spaces. Several recent Japanese-style gardens by each designer are featured in this book with detailed descriptions and sumptuous color photos. Hoichi Kurisu—transformative spaces for spiritual and physical equilibrium. Takeo Uesugi—bright, flowing gardens that evoke joyful living. David Slawson—evocations of native place that fuse with the surrounding landscape. Shin Abe—dynamically balanced "visual stories" that produce meaning and comfort. Marc Keane—reflections on human connections with nature through the art of gardens. Also included are essays on the designers and mini-essays by them about gardens in Japan which have most inspired their work, as well as commentaries by patrons and visitors to their North American gardens. The book focuses on recently-created gardens to suggest how the art form is currently evolving, and to understand how Japanese garden design principles and practices are being adapted to suit the needs and ways of people living and working outside Japan today.

This highly illustrated colour guide to the courtyard gardens of Japan comprises 100 colour photographs, each accompanied by an explanatory caption detailing the location and outstanding characteristics of each garden. An appendix offers practical information on re-creating the Japanese garden. Enjoy it for its sheer beauty or use it for inspiration while creating your own small landscape garden. Japanese gardening is the art of arranging plants, rocks, lanterns, and basins in an open or, as here, an enclosed space. According to the aesthetic principles long