Kyoto and Tokyo are well known for their density of fine Japanese gardens. What fewer people know is, that also other areas have quite a few reasonable Japanese gardens. One of these I would like to introduce today. Shizuoka Prefecture, former Tōtōmi Province (another name: Enshū) Before the daimyō system...Continue Reading
After seeing friends, who reside in Japan, accused of cultural appropriation when wearing kimono by non-Japanese, I wanted to question the torii as a design element in the garden outside of Japan. Is using them cultural appropriation? Starting my research, I asked our mostly non-Japanese followers on Facebook: do you...Continue Reading
Through the act of creating a garden, there is an inherent manipulation of nature. However, in the early forms of Japanese gardening, this was undertaken in order to serve nature and the deities that lived within the ‘garden objects’, such as rocks. It is true that many civilizations’ globally have...Continue Reading
The first thing that must be appreciated when referring to the ‘traditional Japanese garden’ is that this spans a great history of many different eras, possibly to the origins of tangible culture upon this island. Thus, the history of gardens incorporates many evolutionary forms from their simplistic beginnings. In extremely...Continue Reading
I would like to leave with the following short series of posts about the history of traditional Japanese gardens. During my time at RJG, I delved into their realms to begin understanding the complex reasons and methods behind their creation and composition. To begin this series, I would like to...Continue Reading
