KEGAN Harada: Gardens Of Japan

This charming volume presents a rare opportunity to view the gardens of Meiji Japan from the inside, as seen through the eyes of an official of the Imperial Household in 1928. In Japan, the garden is considered a barometer of the nation's prosperity and character, and different periods in history have produced different kinds of gardens. Harada gives brief summaries of them all, including the Edo period (1603-1867), when professional gardeners first took over the design of gardens from priests, and reveals a few of the subtle distinctions that the Japanese use to distinguish between different kinds of gardens that appear identical to Western eyes. As a reaction to all things foreign, the gardens of the Meiji Restoration period (1868-1912), revived the earlier simpler cha-no-yu style of garden heavily influenced by Zen. Rare period photographs of famous parks and the now vanished gardens of Japanese aristocrats show gardens in a more naturalistic style than is common in Japan today.