4 comments about Styles and Motifs Japanese Gardens.

1. It is said that if you cut a Japanese garden with a sword, it will bleed, because the gardener has put his very life's blood into his creation. To stand in the composed splendor of an authentic Japanese garden, it is easy to believe this, so powerful and rich is the aura of the place. Any visitor to Japan will spend at least some time in the famous gardens, wandering and dreaming. Possibly there are one or two Japanese gardens in your hometown as well, if you are lucky.
   
   However, unless you are steeped in the mysteries and culture of Japanese religion, you would no more understand the deeper symbolism of the place than a lifelong Buddhist would understand the icons of a Catholic church. Japanese gardens are not mere works of beauty. In some cases, they are encoded representations of paradise. In other cases, mediation tools to assist in gaining enlightenment. In all cases, they are much more than what they appear.
   
   Katsuhiko Mizuno has kindly written a guide book, a decoder if you will, to the delights of the garden. "Styles and Motifs: Japanese Gardens" is an essential book. Mizuno has made simple the complex structure, elucidating the symbology of the naturescape and the intentions of the gardener. Set into thirty basic motifs, such as "Moss Gardens," "Sand Designs," "Buddhist Trinity Stones" and "Rock Arrangements Symbolizing Eternal Life," the book explains and shows examples of typical features. Each feature is accompanied by a beautiful photograph, and information as to which gardens throughout Japan that particular feature can be found.
   
   The book is compact, and spiral bound, making it very convenient to carry and travel with. Anyone coming to Japan would be happy to have included a copy in their packing.
   
   I have been to Ryoan-ji in Kyoto many times, and each time I can hear people, staring at the famous Dry Landscape Garden (#15 in the book) saying, "Its beautiful, but what does it mean? I just don't get it." If they had a copy of "Styles and Motifs: Japanese Gardens," think of how much richer their experiences would have been!



2. Splendid photographs and insightful descriptions enhance the appreciation I already have for the artistry within Japanese gardens.



3. Some joker here said this book was an "Excellent coffee table book." When you think of a coffee table book, you think of a big book with large pictures.
   
   This book is 6 inches...it's a combed bound landscape pocket book.
   
   Sure the pictures and the short essays that accompany them are lovely...bring a magnifying glass!
   
   However, the essays often point out the shortcomings of the book. In one case, it talks of how a garden was built to be enjoyed from multiple points of view; however, you only get one photo of the garden. In another case, a pond garden is described as being enjoyed from a boat; but the picture is from the shore.
   
   For you zen folk: the nature of the book is not in harmony with the content of the book. A pocket book can never cover the scope of these gardens.
   
   I gave it two stars because it might be good as a learning aid to those studying Japanese gardens...the landscape binding make it a pretty good flash-card system.



4. I got some good ideas looking through this book. I am not a "kid" under 13 but found it difficult to find any other place to review this. I was waiting for it to come to my library but got impatient and sent for it.

3 comments about Living with Japanese Gardens.

1. Aching nostalgia -
   As evening darkens
   and every moment
   grows
   Longer and longer,
   I feel
   ageless as the
   thousand year pine."
   ~Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred More
   Poems from the Japanese
   
   One of the ideas I love from Japanese design books is the luxury of a deep soaking tub. One of the baths in this book is in an open room with glass windows and walls. Of course taking a bath outside seems a dream, but now and then you find those pictures too.
   
   Throughout this lovely book you will find quaint bridges, bamboo gardens, Japanese maple trees, waterfalls, sand and stone gardens and romantic stone paths wandering through trees. Inside, you can see how to place a bed near an antique paneled screen or how to bring stone fountains indoors.
   
   "An ideal Japanese garden is viewed through a window while on relaxes inside, sipping tea at the kitchen table; soaking in a hot bath; or sitting on a bench on a covered veranda." ~ pg. 11
   
   One of the brilliant ideas is a courtyard garden with a retractable roof. The ponds are especially artistic with lots of lantern designs. There is a teahouse in a forest and a home you can only access if you walk over the pond on a slab stone bridge.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



2. The gardens portrayed in the book are of little inspiration and quite surprised they are published.



3. I'm glad I found this book. The authors show an array of Japanese design motifs that can easily be recreated whether you have a large courtyard garden, or a narrow pathway available to landscape. There's a lot you can learn in this book just looking at the many photographs that are offered. For example, I learned that you can create a Japanese garden without a single plant and that even looking at a photograph of a Japanese garden can be a relaxing experience! I particularly recommend this book for anyone who is considering a Japanese Garden but doesn't know where to start.

No comments about Pocket Gardens: Contemporary Japanese Miniature Designs.

5 comments about Indoor Bonsai.

1. This is an excellent book for newcomers and pros alike. It encourages one to break with many of the old traditions and grow your Bonsai indoors! It covers all aspects of tropical and sub-tropical tree cultivation and gives hints and tips on every page. Excellent value for money at any price.



2. This is a good general basics book -- it has beautiful color plates and some good diagramming on prunning and training.

   I found the index of specific species to be very lacking and there is no "problems" section so if you have a problem that is not pest or disease related -- you can't find answers to pretty common situations(like leaf drop) here.




3. As a bonsai beginner, I found this book contained very good answers to most of my questions. It is more helpful than my other 3 bonsai books, combined.

   The text can be divided into two "sections":

   GENERAL INFORMATION: e.g. constant care, repotting and root pruning, shaping, propagation from cuttings, fertilizing, tools you need

   SPECIES-SPECIFIC INFORMATION: very clear instructions on how to apply (at what time of the year and with what frequency) the general techniques mentioned above, on the most popular indoor species; for each species there's a picture of a magnificent finished bonsai.

   I learned a lot reading about pruning, shaping and growing bonsai over rocks; also air-layering. I didn't find anything about grafting, though. I also appreciated the part about "first steps toward an indoor bonsai": it shows a lot of pictures of plants "before" and "after" a few months of training.

   At the end there's a list of "Tropical and subtropical plants suitable for training as indoor bonsai", with a short description of each species and short directions for optimum conditions and care.

   To save time, there's also an index of plant names and a general index.




4. This book tell about shaping and creating, planting and repotting, creating your own indoor bonsai, the tools you will need, pruning, cutting, and trimming, how to wire or bend the branches and all of those necessary things to make a tree or plant into a bonsai. Because of its size 5X7 it is not as easy to use as the larger bonsai books. This book is totally devoted to indoor bonsais and there are not many books on indoor bonsais.
   
   An indoor bonsai does not mean that it lives indoors all year. All bonsais grow better if they are outside as long as your area will permit. An indoor bonsai is one that can live in the house during the winter without a dramatic set back. Outdoor bonsais on the other hand must spend the winter out doors. If you try to keep them in the house for the winter they will eventually die. Most bonsai books include many of the indoor bonsais, but they don't label them as indoor bonsais and they don't tell you how to keep them thriving in the house for the winter.
   
   In this book there are 27 indoor bonsais that are presented in a two-page format. There is a beautiful picture of each bonsai. There is general information about the bonsai; it's origin, size, flower and fruit information, and other interesting information about this bonsai. It also has the following sections: Site, Watering, Feeding, Repotting, Soil, Pruning, Wiring and Propagation.
   
   In the back of this book there is a section listing many more plants and trees that can be made into indoor bonsais with a paragraph on each of them.
   
   This book has a lot of good information. It is printed on very good quality paper and is very tightly bound. It is because of this that it is hard to keep open which makes it a little hard to read and that is the only thing I don't like about this book. "Bonsai In Your Home" is a large book by the same author and is written in the same style. It has more bonsais described in detail, but it doesn't have any of the short descriptions.



5. I love this book. Simply paging through the gorgeous color photos is a treat - I dream about all the types of bonsai I could care for, shaping into lovely forms. There are step by step details about growing a bonsai from seed, training the branches to grow, fertilizing the soil, handling vacations.
   
   For each type of plant there are details on how to set up the temperature, watering, fertilizing, sunlight,and much more so that the particular plant type flourishes.
   
   There are drawings and photos of how the bonsai change over the years so you can get a sense of what to expect
   
   The book goes into common issues a new bonsai owner might face - listless leaves, mushy roots - and explains how to deal with the issues.
   
   Well recommended!

5 comments about Long Ago In France: The Years In Dijon (Destinations).

1. Between 1929 and 1932, young M.F.K. Fisher (later a famed chef and memoirist) and her husband Al Fisher lived and studied in Dijon, France. Here she discovered the people and the food of Burgundy, and she describes both with warmth, sensuality, and humor (without becoming overly sentimental: "It was there, I now understand, that I started to grow up, to study, to make love, to eat and drink, to be me and not what I was expected to be."

   Her writing is crisp and evocative. "He took the apple slices from the bowl one by one, almost faster than we could see, and shook off the wine and laid them in a great, beautiful whorl, from the outside to the center, as perfect as a snail shell. We said not a word. The music trembled in the room." Fisher helps the reader discover the beauty of our appetites. She writes of an old soldier who offers her chocolate: "The chocolate broke at first like gravel into many separate, disagreeable bits...Then they grew soft, and melted voluptuously." Then a doctor offers her bread, admonishing, "Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!" There is a delicious denouement: "...in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate, and as we sat gingerly, the three of us, on the frozen hill...we peered shyly and silently at each other and chewed at one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten..."

   This was a time of great importance for Fisher, and she generously shares her experiences in a richly satisfying book. It's a small treasure.




2. MFK Fisher holds a special place in the hearts of all `foodie' Americans. She was perhaps the 1st person to see the sense of writing food-based literary books and articles, and of course it's now a genre unto itself. But few have rivaled her beautiful prose, and I recall reading that she once said she considered it a day well-lived if she'd managed to compose one perfect sentence. To consider her just a food writer is to do her an injustice; she is a writer, first and foremost, who happens, sometimes, to write about food.
   Long Ago in France is a memoir of her years in Dijon in the 30s, a book full of rich wine, rich ideas, character portraits filled with rich detail. It's about Life, a life filled with joy, experience, food, travel, and memorable people. This book is a paean to a lost era.
   Highest recommendation.



3. `Long Ago in France' by premier American food writer M.F.K. Fisher was one of her last autobiographical memoirs of life in France. She may not have invented the `American in Europe' memoir exemplified by Peter Mayle's `My Year in Provence' and Frances Mayes `Under the Tuscan Sun', but she certainly helped define the genre with this work as well as `Map of Another Town', `A Considerable Town', and parts of many of her other autobiographical works such as `The Gastronomical Me'.
   
   The events in this book, covering much of the first three years of Ms. Fisher's life with her first husband, Al Fisher, spent in a private boarding house in Dijon while hubby Fisher was completing his doctoral dissertation at the University in Dijon. The period of this book occupies a scant seven pages in `Poet of the Appetites', the biography of Ms. Fisher by Joan Reardon, yet the original book reveals practically nothing about the life of husband and wife Fisher. It certainly does not give any clue to why they ended up in Dijon, since their original intention was to study at the more prestigious university in Strasbourg.
   
   This is the first complete work of M.F.K. Fisher's I have read and I feel just a little disappointment. The word pictures of living and eating in Dijon are certainly illuminating, but there is practically none of the humor you find in the books from Mayles and Mayes. There is also less of the scintillating writing I have sampled in some of her more famous pieces. By the author's own admission, much of this material is also a reworking of material from earlier published works as much as it is new stuff mined from her journals of this period.
   
   The most obvious omission is a sense of the troubling times in which these events take place. The three years covered in the narrative are from 1929 through 1931, yet there is virtually no mention of the great depression as it affects Dijon, let alone how it affects the writer and her husband. Oddly, the same is true of Fisher's life as described by her biographer. Fisher's father was the editor, publisher, and owner of a small newspaper in California who did much to subsidize the student life of the young Fishers and of Mary Frances through several difficult years between marriages. Yet, there is practically no mention of this in the writings by and about Fisher.
   
   This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Ms. Fisher's life and the influences on her writing, as she is easily, in the twentieth century American culinary world, the Wittgenstein to Julia Child's Einstein. That is the much lesser known theorist of culinary desire matched with the incomparable practitioner of culinary technique, both of whom got their inspiration from the food and cooking of France.
   
   Yet, compared to similar works by probably less talented writers, this book is just a bit flat and dusty, befitting its recollections of events over sixty years before in the author's life. The stories of life are illuminating. The stories of people are a little empty, as all characters other than Mary Frances herself are long gone from the stage.



4. This is an enjoyable, tantalizing book, with some dull spots in the earlier chapters. It is an account of Fisher's 3 years in Dijon, where she moved in 1929 so that her new husband could pursue a doctorate. She was 20 years old, bright, pretty, charming, in love, and most of all, enthusiastic. The reader gets caught up in all this, so as to overlook the book's serious drawback. Fisher can write very nicely, but you learn much more about her landladies than her husband. Fisher says of her sister Norah, "she TOO speaks always with reserve" (caps mine). The book is written as if you are already acquainted with Fisher, as no doubt many readers are, but for the rest I would recommend, before starting the book, that they look up M.F.K. Fisher in Google and thereby get to the site about Fisher sponsored by Les Dames d'Escoffier International.



5. With her usual wit and style, MFK Fisher brings the food and atmosphere of Dijon alive. It is a fun book, perfect as an introduction to a way of life that is both foreign and dated. The delights of the table set by an eccentric landlady and shared with a variety of characters from the building, are extravegant. Fisher also draws a picture of the town's restaurants, markets, and life.
   
   A good read.

5 comments about Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic Values.

1. I purchased the hardcover of this book in 1988. I read it cover to cover immediately. I used the rock setting techniques described by Slawson "hands on" in my landscape contracting business in Boulder, CO. I found it immensely useful.

   A number of years passed, nearly four of them spent in graduate architecture school studying formal geometries, history, architecture as a verb.....architecture with a great big capital A.

   Yet, I did not fully appreciate the book until recently. I dusted it off when I was hired to set 2 semi-truck loads of stones. I reviewed it and found that my studies from it ten years earlier had indeed made an indelible impression upon me. The seemingly daunting task of composing 50 tons of boulders in an aesthetically pleasing manner was made much easier thanks to Slawson's studies. His book was more useful than 3 1/2 years of architecture school. Believe me, read it and get your hands dirty. Work with big stones, the dirt. It is the real work.

   You will likely find the book "thick" in the sense that at times, each sentence is filled with succinct words. You may find yourself re-reading sentences to understand. Better graphic descriptions could have helped here. In particular the sections comparing Arnheims "Art and Visual Perception" with compositional arrangements, proportions and general japanese garden aesthetics are excellent. It is in these sections where one begins to understand how intelligent japanese garden design is. It fully engages the haptic sense as well as one's psychology.

   Slawson makes many important notes and observations about the making of Japanese gardens. Yet he also points out that Japanese gardens evolved in Japan because of particular conditions of culture and nature. He points out that the teachings would not necessarily recomend "copying" these teachings in other region with climates different than those of Japan.

   Slawson gives us an excellent resource to consider Japanese "teachings" in composing gardens, for example, in the desert southwest (USA). A garden influenced by the desert southwest would simply not fit in Japan. Yet, if you make the "teachings" your own you could create a japanese influenced garden.

   Similarly, many Japanese garden copies in America don't fit. With the exception of the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon.

   I recomend the book because I continue to turn to it year after year. The sign for me of a valuable book.

   Patrick Healy




2. Of all the books we consulted, read, and reread before we began to design and create our own Japanese-style garden -- really, just a small front yard of a rowhouse on a pretty street on Capitol Hill -- Slawson's book was the most useful. Why? Not because it's easy reading! Understanding what the author is trying to say requires careful and slow reading (and rereading) of almost every sentence. It's effort well spent! Unlike so many pretty-picture books about Japanese garden design, which amaze the reader with their photos but leave him/her dumbfounded as to how one would go about designing a garden from scratch (as opposed to merely copying some handsome garden pictured on one of the book's pages!), Slawson's book unlocks -- to the persistent reader -- the fundamentals (secrets, if you insist) of what makes a garden Japanese. As the preceding reviewer already pointed out, this essentially boils down to being able to express one's own experience and impression of nature. Once you're at this stage, the selection of rocks and other materials and their harmonious placement in the space at hand, is almost a piece of cake. (OK, it's still a lot of work to implement one's design, but at least you know what you're supposed to be doing!)

   In case you're wondering about the outcome of our design effort: we've gotten lots of praise from neighbors and from total strangers, from American and from Japanese friends, for our little Japanese-style rock garden. And everybody who looks at our front yard gets what we were trying to express artistically! I have no doubts that we could never had this type of success without having had access to Slawson's remarkable book.




3. I have, over the years, collected a number of books on the art of Japanese Gardens. Most rely on glossy photos and provide very little written content on the complexities of Japanese garden composition. What sets this work apart is its depth and focus on unraveling the underlying design principles and its intent on providing a deeper understanding into the art of Japanese gardening. If you were looking for a purely visual reference I would advise you not purchase this book. If however you were searching for a scholarly study in the design aesthetics of Japanese gardens, I would give this book my strongest recommendation. Slawson begins with his experiences as a master gardener's apprentice in Japan and ends with a full translation of an ancient gardening manual used by Buddhist monks. Each page overflows with background, details and inspiration. He urges and inspires you not to transplant an existing garden design, but gives the reader the foundation to evolve a plan reflective of your own individual location and taste. By clearly dissecting the aesthetic principal behind Japanese garden design, the book succeeds in creating a truly inspirational guide. Have a highlighter and note pad ready from the first page of the acknowledgements to the comprehensive bibliography.



4. This book is too dense for my needs. If you need to read liquid platinum about Japanese gardens, go for this book. If you need a quicker hitter, go elsewhere.



5. I first found this book over twenty years ago and have not found another that comes close to giving the reader as comprehensive an understanding of Japanese garden design. At first, I read the book from cover to cover. However, because of its depth it is best to re-read the book (the second and all subsequent times) in sections. A more thorough and complete understanding is achieved.
   
   It is true that this book is not an easy read. However, it has always been an enjoyable and enlightened one.

2 comments about The Modern Japanese Garden.

1. IMHO, this is the best book on home or garden design I've ever seen.
   
   It contains one brilliant idea after another for adapting the ancient principles of the Japanese garden to the contemporary world. One of them I'm adapting for my a tiny space in NYC. My wife, who is a plant fanatic, cannot believe what a beautiful and haunting space can be created without any living plants at all.
   
   The book forces you to see and to think and to move beyond the traditional Japanese garden as cliche and to think about what is timeless about thoughtful design.



2. I'm a garden designer and a big fan of exceptionally executed work. It is sometimes surprisingly hard to find good design work in design books, I often see one or two new ideas but almost never a whole book of inspiration like I found here.
   
   This book is both a pleasure to look through and also to read. I find new inspiration every time I open it, it is the most diverse book on Japanese garden design I've seen. Many other books illustrate basic Japanese garden design principles, but their gardens usually look very similar. This book escapes that trap stunningly. Use it for information, inspiration, imagination.
   
   You cannot go wrong here if design well done, exectued, maintained, and photographed is what you're looking for.

5 comments about Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces.

1. As much as I liked the pictures and the possibilities of the gardens, there's no chance that the average person could even attempt some of the Japanese style gardens. The designs are beautiful but you really do need a LOT of room to do any of these designs. The idea of a calming, tranquil space to sit would be wonderful but not on my budget.



2. I picked up about ten books on Japanese gardening at the library and this book was by far the most inspirational. The author gives definitions for technical terms and also shows step by step illustrations to recreate various photographs within the book. He also shows how to make a bamboo fence which I thought was really neat and I am actually going to give it a try. This is the only book I decided to purchase out of the lot from the library and I plan on giving a few copies as gifts.



3. You will find inside a lot of inspiration on how to make things work. Exceptional "do it yourself" recommendations. Its a real guidebook for japanese gardening lovers.



4. This is an excellent book for anyone planning to build their own garden. The instructions for creating the various elements of the garden made it look easy, and the descriptions given for items that become a part of the garden I found quite interesting. I would have liked even more finished garden pictures as I was only looking for inspiration. But, even with out as many pictures as I would have like, the book was helpful and my garden is now complete, giving me the tranquility I was looking for.



5. As the founder of Japan Garden Society and Yoshikawa Isao Garden Research Institute, as well as a honorary member of executive board of the China Landscape Architects Society in both Suzhou and Hangzhou, Mr. Isao Yoshikawa summarizes his many years of garden design experience in "Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces: Step-By-Step Illustrations."
   
   "Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces: Step-By-Step Illustrations" covers small gardens (history and designs and design tips and tools), basin front gardens, stone lantern gardens, paving and stepping stone gardens, stone arrangement gardens, garden accents (bamboo fences, stone lantern and water basins), materials for small gardens (trees and shrubs, ground covers, stones and gravels), basic techniques for Japanese gardening, and a chapter on how to make small gardens.
   
   "Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces: Step-By-Step Illustrations" has 128 pages and many beautiful interior color photos. It is a valuable and practical book on Japanese gardens.
   
   Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

5 comments about Bonsai (Rd Home Handbooks).

1. This book is a good basic start for the beginner (me!) Bonsai enthusiast. It is well organized, the graphics are a super plus. It is a handy and compact reference that is easy and comprehensive.



2. Awesome! With this book alone, I have kept 5 trees alive for almost a year now (I lost one tree due to my sister's neglect while I was away).
   Easy to read with great information.
   Great photos and easy reference for most popular species. The species section is thoughtfully laid out with a block of easy to access pertinent information regarding watering, pruning, climate conditions, etc. for each tree.



3. I had wanted to learn bonsai for years, but I kept putting it off because I couldn't find a reference that covered everything. Some books are great on types of plants but don't cover maintenance in much depth, some are great on maintenance but aren't well illustrated, and so on. Then I picked up this book, largely on the strength of the reviews I found here. I was not disappointed.
   
   This 216 page book has an 'A-Z of Bonsai Species' that covers 75+ species with a pagefull of information and at least one (often two or three) full color photo of each. A dictionary of trees and shrubs at the back of the book covers the requirements and care of 250+ species. All of the major methods of starting bonzai are covered, as well as the major forms, and every aspect of care and maintenance, all with clearly written instructions and step-by-step photos. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with full color photos. These are supplemented with very clear one-color pen-and-ink drawings in the section on wiring, which is quite detailed. There are lots of before, during, and after photos showing how bushy nurshery shrubs, seedlings, and cuttings can be turned into attractive bonsai. Every "but what about X" question I had was answered. It is simply the most comprehensive, best written, best illustrated, and most reassuring book on bonsai I've ever seen.



4. By no means would I ever be considered an expert on the art of Bonsai, but about 5 years, I took up the hobby. As an avid reader, when my interest blossomed, I bought several books on the subject. Of those, by far, I found BONSAI by Harry Tomlinson to be the best "beginners" book, but it is also one I have turn to time and again since I first took up the hobby.
   
   This book is in six chapters, following the logical progression; The Art of Bonsai, A-Z of Bonsai Species, Creating a Bonsai, Propagating Bonsai, Maintaining Bonsai, and a Dictionary of Trees and Shrubs for Bonsai.
   
   The photography is exceptional an, for the beginner, will heighten your interest and give you goals to strive for as you are sure to see some examples you simply cannot live without. The writing, though rather brief, is equally compelling and easy to understand, even for the beginner. There might be better books for beginning bonsai, but I never found them.



5. Very good the best in all one i see best book A++++++++++

5 comments about Japanese Garden Design.

1. This is one of the best non-fiction selections I've ever encountered. It does justice to its esteemed topic, both in its superb photographic selections and its rich and highly informative text. Far more than a mere coffee table book, Mr. Keane's solid understanding and sensitive insight have created a work which I refer to often in my own gardening ventures. I cannot recommend this book more highly.



2. There are many nice picutes in this book, however, there is not much instruction on the actual design of a Japanese garden. It talks about the history and philosophy, but does not mention much about the principles of design such as rock placement, plant species, structures, etc. It is enjoyable to browse through often, but is a better "coffee table" book than textbook.



3. Marc Keane, the other author of this exellent book, is a professor at Kyoto University, and educates students in Japanese garden design. Other good background material on Japanese gardens includes: "Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden" (a trans. of an 11th cent. Japanese scroll), also written by Marc Keane, with Jiro Takei; and "Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardening" ( another ancient scroll trans.), by David Slawson.

   A very useful "how-to" book is: "Creating Japanese Gardens", by Phillip Cave. "A Japanese Touch for your Garden," by Seike, Kudo and Engel, also supplies the meat-and-potatoes.

   You can pick up many helpful details in pictures found in the "coffee-table" books available. Haruzo Ohashi, who did the photography for "Japanese Garden Design," has done outstanding photographic work for several other books in this category.

   If you are a "back-yard-gardener" like me, all of these books will just be the starting point. You will learn that there are several distinct styles of Japanese gardens. However, there are no hard rules. Elements of the basic styles can be incorporated into your garden.

   The finished product: "your interpretation of the Japanese Garden" (what works for you), will be well worth the effort. It was for me. Just remember that in the Japanese garden "less is often more." Every open space does not have to be filled with a rock, a plant or an ornament. Step back and look at each element that you incorporate. Make sure that each item compliments your whole design. This is the essence of the project.

   Good Luck and Have Fun!




4. Of all the monographs on Japanese garden design, this book provides the best overview of the underlying cultural context that has been the basis for its development.
   
   While this book does not desribe individual gardens in detail, it adresses both the historical context and the many other influences that have shaped the aesthetic of the Japanese garden. More so than in any previous monograph, Marc Peter Keane points out the influences of Japan's prehistoric period, Shintoism and Buddhism as it relates to the veneration of landscape and nature.
   
   He also describes the effect that geomancy, poetry and ink brush painting had on the evolution of garden prototypes and subject matter. Beyond that he pays special attention to the physical setting, architectural context, aesthetics, social and economical environment in which each of the garden prototypes evolved into todays classifications.
   
   The book is beautifully ilustrated with a large number of color photographs and drawings by the author, that support and visualize the points made in the well-written text. I believe this is currently the best monograph, in that it gives an excellent introduction to the Japanes garden and its cultural heritage to international audiences, without getting lost in the description of details of individual gardens or the symbolic meanings attributed to specific design elements.



5. I bought a number of books on Japanese Gardens, because I like visiting them and wanted to make one of my own. I found this book to be more of a textbook than the rest; it is heavy on history and theory but is somewhat dull. If you want to be inspired, you probably don't want a book that uses endnotes. There is nothing wrong with it, but I found the Art of Japanese Gardens to be more balanced in terms of photos/inspiration and text. This is more thorough in terms of history and theory and less so with beautiful and varied photographs. In designing my own garden, I ultimately could have done without this book, though if you are fascinated by theory and history, it is probably the most comprehensive. If you're buying one book only to help inspire and educate, I'd go with the Art of Japanese Gardens.