Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 32070000000260 | SB458 M36 2011 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
Featuring stunning photographs and thoughtful commentary this Japanese gardening book is a must-have for any gardening enthusiast.
No two Japanese gardens are ever the same. Each is inimitable, yet embodies commonalities of design and aesthetic taste. Each finds the space for innovation within a tradition that benefits from a thousand years of applied knowledge in gardening and landscape architecture. Japan's Master Gardens explores the ingenuity and range of Japanese landscaping, from the self-imposed confines of courtyard designs to the open expanses of the stroll garden.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Stephen Mansfield takes readers on an exploration of the outward forms, underlying principles, complex use of metaphor and allusion, and beauty and depth that set the Japanese garden apart.
Topics include: A Sense of Nature The Modular Garden Landscape Gardens Requisitioning Space Healing Gardens
Author Notes
Stephen Mansfield , an author and freelance photojournalist based in Japan, has contributed to over 60 magazines, newspapers and journals worldwide. His books include Japanese Stone Gardens: Origins, Meaning, Form and Tokyo: A Cultural and Literary History . A specialist in the field, he has visited over two hundred gardens in Japan, written extensively on the topic and designed a Japanese garden of his own.
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this generously illustrated book, author and photojournalist Mansfield (Japanese Stone Gardens) explores the beauty and history of Japanese gardens. Mansfield is an expert guide who uses poetic prose and photographs to examine the Japanese senses of nature and space, and the culture's fundamental gardening genres: the modular garden, the landscape garden, and the healing garden. The visual tour of 25 master gardens allows the reader to appreciate the exquisite details of each place, while also discerning the fundamental aesthetic principles that underlie the Japanese garden. Mansfield accompanies his striking photographs with a spare text that combines history, poetry, and thoughtful meditations on each space. It's a wonderful balance of insight and visual delight. The guide is completed with a glossary, historic timeline, and bibliography. Color photographs throughout. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
It is probably impossible to view classical Japanese gardens and not feel a sense of tranquility. Valued for their refined simplicity and elegant composition, Japanese master gardens offer a timeless glimpse into ancient worlds and a timely antidote to the modern one. Japan-based photojournalist Mansfield is an authority on Japanese garden culture, and his photographic homage to that nation's finest examples of landscape design offers a suitably understated yet surprisingly comprehensive survey of the elements, materials, techniques, and principles that influence their creation. Within this slim volume, readers are introduced to stunning examples of healing and temple gardens, urban respites and remote retreats. Mansfield's elegant photographs artfully capture each garden's essence, from the tightly controlled symmetry of dry landscape gardens of the temple at Sekizo-ji to the serene majesty of early-seventeenth-century stroll gardens at Kumamoto. Teeming with historical, cultural, and design insights, Mansfield's treatise succinctly defines the extraordinary variety and beauty of gardens throughout Japan.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist
