Kyoto Gardens

In their rocks and plants, empty spaces and intimate details Kyoto s gardens manifest a unique ability to provoke thought and delight in equal measure. These varied landscapes meld the sensuality of nature with the disciplines of cosmology, poetry and meditation. Japanese aristocrats created these gardens to display not just wealth and power, but cultural sensitivity and an appreciation for transcendent beauty. A class of professional gardeners eventually emerged, transforming Japanese landscape design into a formalised art. Today, Kyoto s gardens display an enormous range of forms from rock gardens display of extreme minimalism and subtle hues, to stroll gardens of luscious proportions and vibrant colours. This book is a labour of love from master photographer Ben Simmons and Kyoto-based writer Judith Clancy. Simmons photographs present a fresh and contemporary look at Kyoto s most important gardens. Their beauty is enhanced and humanized by gardeners tending the grounds using the tools of their art. Clancy s graceful text provides historic, aesthetic and cultural context to the gardens. Combining wonder and rigor, she describes how Kyoto s most beloved gardens, although containing not a single planting from their original centuries-old designs, nonetheless remain faithful of their founders creative spirit and conception.