Gardens

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Any recommendations for Japanese gardening resources, particularly late 16th century?
Books, websites, personal attempts?
Forgive me if this has been asked before, the forum search function has not been working for me for several days.

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2013 22:41:33 GMT -5 Mega Zenjirou Yoshi said:

Any recommendations for Japanese gardening resources, particularly late 16th century?
Books, websites, personal attempts?

Well, that time period basically covers the rise of the formal tea ceremony and the development of the sukiya style of "tea garden" and associated architecture. Anything you can find on classical tea gardens is probably appropriate.

I found a copy of "From Castle to Teahouse" (John B. Kirby, Jr.; 1962) recently, which is mostly about the changes in architecture over the course of the Momoyama period, but it has some stuff about sukiya gardens.

My wife, Lady Hara, has an interest in gardening in general and in Japanese gardens, so I got her a subscription to "Sukiya Living; The Journal of Japanese Gardening" (http://www.rothteien.com/), which I can't recommend enough. It goes all the way from how to prune bushes to how to create garden ponds by diverting some of a local stream.

Forgive me if this has been asked before, the forum search function has not been working for me for several days.

Yeah, for me, too. I've been adding "site:tousando.proboards.com" to Google searches, but that kind of search digs all the way to the bottom, with no respect for chronology.

[Ōgiyame no Emi]

Being written in the mid-to-late 11th century it may be a little early, but I highly recommend the "Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden" (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature, ISBN-10: 0804839689, ISBN-13: 978-0804839686) for anyone with an interest in ancient Japanese gardens - or indeed, plants or houses of the period.

It's a wonderful book, half of which covers what the notion of a garden actually means (or meant) at the time, along with chapters on aesthetics, waterfalls and streams, setting of stones, taboos, the Shinden mansion, and the variety of gardens styles at an aristocrat's disposal: Ocean, Mountain torrent, broad river, wetland and reed. Best of all, a full copy of the translated Sakuteiki scroll is included in the second half along with an index of trees (fruiting and non fruiting) and plants commonly used in the Heian garden.

www.amazon.co.uk/Sakuteiki-Visions-Japanese-Classics-Literature/dp/0804839689/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371911073&sr=1-1&keywords=sakuteiki

[Mega Zenjirou Yoshi]

Jun 22, 2013 16:07:28 GMT -5 Ōgiyame no Emi said:

Being written in the mid-to-late 11th century it may be a little early, but I highly recommend the "Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden" (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature, ISBN-10: 0804839689, ISBN-13: 978-0804839686) for anyone with an interest in ancient Japanese gardens - or indeed, plants or houses of the period.

It's a wonderful book, half of which covers what the notion of a garden actually means (or meant) at the time, along with chapters on aesthetics, waterfalls and streams, setting of stones, taboos, the Shinden mansion, and the variety of gardens styles at an aristocrat's disposal: Ocean, Mountain torrent, broad river, wetland and reed. Best of all, a full copy of the translated Sakuteiki scroll is included in the second half along with an index of trees (fruiting and non fruiting) and plants commonly used in the Heian garden.

www.amazon.co.uk/Sakuteiki-Visions-Japanese-Classics-Literature/dp/0804839689/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371911073&sr=1-1&keywords=sakuteiki

Adding it to my wish list.
I'm curious how influential this work might have been later in the period.