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Japanese Gardening Books & Reviews-Canada

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Suggested books and review by members of the Japanese Gardening Forum

	The Art of Japanese Gardens Herb Gustafson It is a wonderful book. - Gregory John
	The Art of Setting Stones Marc Peter Keane This book is a collection of essays by Marc Keane exploring the philosophical side of Japanese gardens. While having little to nothing to do with the actual task of setting stones, it made me feel I was in Kyoto, sitting in the garden, experiencing the deepest essence of that special place. I recommend this one for anyone with a love of Japanese gardens, whether you have been to Japan or not. It is pure magic - Don Pylant
	Courtyard Gardens of Kyoto's Merchant Houses Katsuhiko Mizuno Still reading this one, but so far, it provides a wonderfully illustrated evolution of machiya architecture in Kyoto, from reconstruction to modern day use, and the effect on their gardens. It has a simple primer on merchant house styles and visits examples of the gardens of many merchant houses. The photographs are excellent and the inspiration is top notch! - Don Pylant
	Creating Japanese Gardens Philip Cave, Geoffrey Jellicoe I almost didn't get Cave's book but it is truly beautiful. - Gregory John
	Create Your Own Japanese Garden Motomi Oguchi, Joseph Cali As the extended title indicates, it's a practical guide. Oguchi indicates that one should read it through before deciding on design - and he is right. This is a really good book; going through step by step decisions from problems of the site to solutions of why what was chosen. Japanese words that are useful to know are used throughout, and with reading through, even the chapter on "The Weed Garden" is a valuable lesson in garden making and in how to save money, time and 'design stress'. A chapter on Tea Gardens:Tree Gardens... this is nowhere near the 'do it in a weekend', yet makes anything do-able right from the beginning. I have found that I needed to read some chapters twice and probably again just to allow the components to inter-relate from garden to garden examples. Diagrams of construction details, practical advice, along with explanations of word and conceptual origins. Fences, gates, paths, streams, ponds, bamboo work.. really easy to read until one realizes there is more than than first met the brain. The jacket itself is from Oguchi-sensei's own teahouse that he had moved from Kyoto, revamped and the garden built. Thanks to both author's in bringing this book translation to English. I would say this is a 'must have' and will leave that as todays understatement. - Edzard Teubert
	Enhance Your Garden with Japanese Plants Judy Glattstein An introduction to and history of Japanese plants in America is followed by sections describing and providing cultivation information. - Gregory John
	The Garden Art of Japan Masao Hayakawa It has some striking pictures - a few colour plates, but the rest of the pictures are in black and white. One of the most powerful pictures is of the stone arrangement in the upper garden, Saiho-ji, Kyoto. The author writes of it as '...a crystallization of the spirit of the great priest Muso Soseki - a spirit that truly revolutionized Japanese garden design in the medieval age.' A little further on, he refers to the upper garden as representing 'the deeply ascetic outlook of Zen.....' Chapter 4 is entitled 'The World Of The Dry-Landscape Garden and the sub-heading 'Gardens for Zen Discipline'. It begins - 'Muso Soseki attempted to give physical form to his Zen Philosophy in the dry-landscape garden of Saiho-ji and the dry waterfall stone group in the garden of Tenryu-ji. Such gardens are in themselves a means towards Zen self-examination, spiritual refinement and ultimate enlightenment. They therefore belong to a dimension of creativity entirely different (my underlining) from that of gardens designed for pleasure or for the gratification of aesthetic tastes......' I found it difficult to put the book down. - Gregory John
Not available from Amazon.ca.	Gardening The Japanese Way Sima Eliovson A big book with lots of color pictures and lots of advice on all aspects of Japanese style gardening. - Gregory John
	The Hidden Gardens of Kyoto Masaaki Ono An inspirational collection of photos of palace, shrine, temple, tea school, villa, inn and restaurant gardens. Absolutely gorgeous. This one stays out on my table all the time. - Gregory John
Not available from Amazon.ca	Infinite Spaces Joe Earle Pairs quotations from an ancient writing the Sakuteiki on garden design with exquisite photos that illuminate the words. - Gregory John
	Japanese Courtyard Gardens Haruzo Ohashi A beautiful picture book that gives a nice sampling of small gardens -- including those in private residences hotels and inns and temples/shrines. - Gregory John
	Japanese Garden Construction Samuel Newsom No review has been submitted.
	Japanese Garden Design Marc P. Keane, Haruzo Ohashi Reading such a smooth introduction to Japanese gardens was a pleasurable experience. - Gregory John
	A Japanese Garden Journey: Through Ancient Stones and Dragon Bones Judith Klingsick I know it is a small hardcover book: 44 pages. - Gregory John It is a pleasant booklet of 48 or so pages with pictures from North American Japanese gardens. But I wouldn't call it a journey - maybe a field trip. - Don Pylant

	Japanese Gardens Gunter Nitzske Has wonderful photos of classic garden concepts - Gregory John
	Japanese Gardens Josiah Conder No review has been submitted.
	The Japanese Tea Garden Marc Peter Keane This book is not yet released, but you may pre-order here. Your purchase originating from this page will benefit japanesegardening.org. I do have the Japanese/English "The Tea Garden" by Haruzo Ohashi, the co-author of "Japanese Garden Design" with Marc Keane. I dont know if we can assume another joint effort, but the photographs are fantastic. - Don Pylant
	A Japanese Touch for your Garden Kiyoshi Seike Masanobu Kudo, David H. Engel Has a wealth of practical information. - Gregory John This is a revised addition - Don Pylant
	Landscape Gardening in Japan Josiah Conder This book has numerous reproductions of the black-and-white woodblock prints from these Edo period gardening manuals, as well as fascinating photos of famous (plus some just plain weird) gardens taken during the Meiji era. (For instance, see Kinkakuji with the pond choked with aquatic weeds on page 171). A really fun book for reference (would not recommend using it to design a garden) - Gregory John
	Landscapes For Small Spaces Katsuhiko Mizuno No review has been submitted.
Not available from Amazon.ca	Magic of Trees and Stones Katsuo Saito, Sadaji Wada just quite simply the best book(english language) on the subject. Jumps right into the middle of things with a pretty good explanation of "shibusa", really good pictures particularly with shin/gyo/so paths, nice planning and construction drawings. - Michael Brenner
	Niwaki Jake Hobson Well written and well done! I have not encountered a western book that addresses these techniques. Jake, you've neatly, simply explained them. I really would have appreciated this book 30 years ago. Not a 'science' book, but a workhorse or more correctly a working tool, providing a framework for what may be done in North America by addressing what is done in Japan. Simply put, this book needs to be out in the garden working with you. - Edzard Teubert Taken from Edzard Teubert's review on the forum under "Papers & Pubs"
	Sakuteiki Visions of the Japanese Garden Jiro takei, Marc P. Keane No review has been submitted.
	Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens David A. Slawson 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. - Gregory John
	Themes in the History of Japanese Garden Art Wybe Kuitert (ISBN 0-8248-2312-5) The best English-language treatment of Japanese garden history available. It's a bit hard to work through, but that's partly due to the meatiness of the material. I found it worked perfectly well to read its chapters out of order, following any thread I was particularly interested in. The index and bibliography (both J & E) are excellent and Wybe gives a very extensive glossary including kanji/kana. - Gregory John
	Zen Gardening Sunniva Harte Those of you turned off by reference to a Zen reference to Japanese gardens, get past that and understand this book's focus on the calming and healing properties of gardens. I would strongly recommend this book for inspirational value. - Don Pylant
	Japanese Stone Gardens Isao Yoshikawa No review posted
	Cha-No-Yu A. L. Sadler A book on the Way of Tea. No review posted
	The Genius of Japanese Carpentry Azby Brown Japanese carpentry. No review posted

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日本の園芸 | Japanese Gardening