In November, right before the first heavy snowfall, I had the chance to visit the famous ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse) Ryugon. The Ryugon opened its doors in 1964, the same year the Olympics took place in Tokyo. However, most of the buildings on the grounds are much older! Utsugi, the...Continue Reading
Being involved in a time-consuming publishing process on Amazon, I am very happy I finally found the time to write a new eBook for Real Japanese Gardens. In July, I wrote two articles about the Adachi Museum of Art for two web magazines, so I chose our new eBook to...Continue Reading
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
Finally I finished the last book in our “Gardens in Tokyo” series! I am very happy and also a little bit proud. The last book features the secret garden of the Tokyo National Museum, which is only open for the public in spring and autumn. I visited the garden three...Continue Reading
Just after I started the new series about the secret gardens of Tokyo, I already took a break and wrote a book about a really nice temple in Kyoto. As we do from time to time, we had a business trip to Kyoto in early winter in 2015 to study...Continue Reading
Needless to say, we were very eager to start our tour of gardens as soon as we arrived in Kyoto. After depositing our bags in the rather festive hotel, we hurried off to catch the bus to our first stop. There was a slight drizzling rain, but it didn’t dampen our...Continue Reading
On Saturday’s Good Garden Day, I took the chance to visit the gardens of Rikugien in Tokyo. Just as a reminder, this garden was originally created in the Edo period (c. 1603 – 1868), and then recreated in the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). I thought this a prime opportunity...Continue Reading
I proudly present our new eBook in the „Famous Gardens of Tokyo“ series. Hamarikyū can not only be seen as a Japanese garden, but also as a great park, located next to Tokyo Bay. As most gardens in Tokyo, it is dated back to the Edo period, which means, that...Continue Reading
From today on, our new eBook about the daimyo garden Koishikawa Kōrakuen is available! This garden is one of the two most famous Japanese gardens in Tokyo. It is a perfect example for the strolling gardens (kayushiki teien) of the Edo period. Gardens of this time took elements of every...Continue Reading
