Imperial gardens of Japan : Sento Gosho, Katsura, Shugaku-in /
More than three centuries ago, when Kyoto was the capital of Japan, three magnificent gardens were created there for the imperial court - gardens intended for such elegant pastimes as tea ceremonies, poetry contests, and moon-viewing parties and, in general, for the appreciation of nature in its var...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York ; Tokyo :
Weatherhill/Tankosha,
[1970]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | More than three centuries ago, when Kyoto was the capital of Japan, three magnificent gardens were created there for the imperial court - gardens intended for such elegant pastimes as tea ceremonies, poetry contests, and moon-viewing parties and, in general, for the appreciation of nature in its various manifestations and moods. Today these three gardens - those of the Sento Imperial Palace, the Katsura Detached Palace, and the Shugaku-in Detached Palace - are among the most celebrated in Japanese garden art, and here, for the first time in a book designed for Western readers, their beauty is revealed in striking photography and intimate detail. If Japan can be said to have any surviving hidden treasures in this day of mass tourism, certainly these three gardens come close to holding that distinction. Since they can be visited only by special appointment, the average sojourner in Kyoto does not arrange to see them. There is a virtue in this exclusiveness, however, for the gardens are not overrun by hordes of sightseers, and they are maintained with fastidious care. To visit them is certainly one of the chief pleasures of a stay in Japan's ancient capital city. Aside from the dominant factors of their beauty and their status as imperial properties, the three gardens have other important elements in common. All were to a great extent designed by members of the court; all are much larger than the average Japanese garden; all are stroll gardens in which the visitor is charmed by an almost endless succession of delightful views; and all date from the middle years of the seventeenth century, when the stroll garden emerged into prominence. The three gardens, although larger than most others in Japan, are actually composites of a number of scenic settings - for example, the lower, middle, and upper levels of Shugaku-in and the several teahouse settings at Katura. Thus the reader, through a careful study of the component gardens, can reach an understanding of the basic principles of Japanese garden and landscape art, expressed here in classical style. Again, the reader can see these three imposing gardens as expressions of the remarkable creativeness of the seventeenth-century imperial court. Emperors and princes, deprived of all political power by the ruling shoguns, turned to artistic pursuits, among them the art of garden design. Today their gardens, reverently preserved and universally admired, stand as monuments to their discriminating taste, outshining all surviving gardens created by the military rulers and their vassals. Through the photographs and the accompanying essays in this book the reader is invited not only to see these gardens in a variety of seasons and moods but also to have a look at their history and the distinguishing features of their construction and design: the ponds, waterfalls, and streams; the bridges and islands; the teahouses and residential structures; the steppingstones, paths, and stone lanterns; the ornamental rockwork; and the trees and shrubbery. Indeed, the book offers useful lessons in garden and landscape design, but, more important than this, it conveys the spirit of the gardens themselves and the aesthetic philosophy that went into their making: the design concepts of the emperor Gomizuno-o, for example, as expressed in the gardens of the Sento Palace and Shugaku-in, and those of the imperial princes Toshihito and his son Noritada, as displayed in the Katsura garden. What the visitor feels and experiences in these gardens is the true theme of the book, and it is to this theme that the three novelists Yukio Mishima, Yasushi Inoue, and Jiro Osaragi address themselves in putting down their impressions to serve as prologues to the three sections of photographs. Similarly it is Teiji Itoh's aim, in the introduction and the commentaries on the photographs, to enhance the reader's pleasure by setting the historical scene, by placing the gardens in the overall perspective of Japanese garden development, and by pointing out significant details of their composition. It is Takeji Iwamiya, of course, who plays the main role here by pointing out significant details of their composition. It is Takeji Iwamiya, of course, who plays the main role here by reflecting the beauty of the gardens in his superlative photographs - pictures which, to quote an appreciative comment on his work by Japanese-garden authority Loraine Kuck, "provide ... a dimension of vivid immediacy which is the next best thing to a walk through the gardens themselves." - Dust jacket. |
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| Item Description: | This book is based upon the three volume work published in Japanese by Tankosha, Kyoto, in 1968 under the title Kyutei no Niwa (Imperial Gardens). - Title page verso. This text, including a new introduction and commentaries, has been translated and adapted for Western readers by Richard L. Gage and Akira Furuta under the editorship of Ralph Friedrich. - Title page verso. Translation of: Kyūtei no niwa. |
| Physical Description: | 290 pages : illustrations (some color), plans ; 37 cm |
| ISBN: | 0802724361 9780802724366 0834815079 9780834815070 |