In-depth writings on Japanese garden culture, philosophy, botany, and design from our team of experts and contributing scholars.
The dry landscape garden is one of Japan's most radical artistic inventions — a garden without water, without flowers, sometimes without trees, yet more expressive than a thousand blooming acres. We explore the philosophy, history, and technique of karesansui with established garden scholar Akira Yamamoto.
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The tōrō stone lantern has lit Japanese gardens for over a thousand years. From its origins as a Buddhist temple offering to its role as a masterful garden element, the stone lantern embodies the intersection of utility and profound aesthetic purpose.
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Sen no Rikyū envisioned the garden path as a psychological journey — a way of shedding the worries of the outer world before entering the pure space of the tea ceremony. We walk the roji at a historic Kyoto villa and consider what this ancient path still has to teach us.
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Irregular stepping stones set in gravel, moss, or sand invite us to walk slowly, attentively. The placement of each stone is a choreography of movement through space — one of the most sophisticated achievements of Japanese garden design.
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In Japanese aesthetics, the space between things is as important as the things themselves. The concept of ma — negative space, pause, interval — is central to garden making, music, architecture, and the tea ceremony. Here we explore its many dimensions.
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Few sights in the garden calendar equal a full-flowering wisteria — cascades of violet and lilac blossoms trailing over wooden pergolas above calm reflecting ponds. We examine the cultural significance and cultivation of this magnificent climber.
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