Moss, stone, trees, and sand arranged in striking or natural-looking
compositions: the tradition of establishing and refining the landscape
has been the work of Japanese gardeners and designers for centuries. In
Japanese Gardens and Landscapes, 1650-1950 Wybe Kuitert presents a
richly illustrated survey of the gardens and the people who
commissioned, created, and used them and chronicles the modernization of
traditional aesthetics in the context of economic, political, and
environmental transformation.
Kuitert begins in the Edo period (1603-1868), when feudal lords
recreated the landscape of the countryside as private space. During this
same period, and following Chinese literary models, scholars and men of
letters viewed the countryside itself, without any contrivance, as the
ideal space in which to meet with friends and have a cup of tea.
Stewards of inns, teahouses, and temples, on the other hand, followed
increasingly clichéd garden designs prescribed in popular, mass-produced
pattern books. Over the course of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, the newly wealthy captains of industry in Tokyo
adopted the aesthetic of the feudal lords, finding great appeal in
naturalistic landscapes and deciduous forests.
Confronted with modernization and the West, tradition inevitably took on
different meanings. Westerners, seeking to understand Japanese garden
culture, found their answers in the pattern-book clichés, while in
Japan, private landscapes became public and were designed in
environmentally supportable ways, all sponsored by the government. An
ancient, esoteric, and elite art extended its reach to every quarter of
society, most notably with the extensive rebuilding that occurred in the
aftermath of the Tokyo earthquake of 1923 and the end of World War II.
In the wake of destruction came a new model for sustainable public parks
and a heightened awareness of ecological issues, rooted above all in the
natural landscape of Japan.
Featuring more than 180 color photographs and reproductions, Japanese
Gardens and Landscapes, 1650-1950 illustrates a history of changes and
continuities across a span of three centuries and makes an eloquent case
for the lessons to be learned from the Japanese tradition as we face the
challenges of a rapidly changing human habitat.
