From the busy streets of Tokyo to the secluded shores of Kyushu, from the volcanoes of Hokkaido to the temples of Kyoto, the treasured landscapes of Japan are brought to life in this concise visual guide. Drawing upon years of observation, Cotton Mather, P.P. Karan, and Shigeru Iijima explore the complex interaction of culture, time, and space in the evolution of landscapes in Japan. The authors begin with a discussion of the landscape's general characteristics, including paucity of idle land, scarcity of level land, and its meticulous organization and immaculate nature. They then apply those characteristics to such favorite subjects as home gardens, sculpted plants, and flower arrangements, but also to more mundane matters such as roadside shoulders, utility lines, and walled urban areas. This unique blending of physical and social sciences with humanities perspectives offers a unified analysis of the Japanese landscape.

*Gold Medal winner in the 2014 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Home & Garden* "Just flipping through the pages of Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America will instantly lower your blood pressure."--The New York Times Book Review Quiet Beauty: Japanese Gardens of North America is an extraordinary look at the most beautiful and serene gardens of the United States and Canada. Most Japanese garden books look to the gardens of Japan. Quiet Beauty explores the treasure trove of Japanese gardens located in North America. Featuring an intimate look at twenty-six gardens, with numerous stunning color photographs of each, that detail their style, history, and special functions, this book explores the ingenuity and range of Japanese landscaping. Japanese gardens have been part of North American culture for almost 150 years. Quiet Beauty is a thought provoking look at the history of their introduction to the world of North American gardening and how this aspect of Japanese culture has taken root and flourished. Japanese gardens include: Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California Nitobe Memorial Garden, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia Japanese Garden, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Texas Garden of the Pine Winds, Denver Botanic Gardena, Colorado Japanese Garden, Montreal Botanical Garden, Quebec Tenshin'en (The Garden of the Heart of Heaven), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Roji'en (Garden of Drops of Dew), The George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Japanese Gardens, The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, Florida Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix, Margaret T. Hance Park, Arizona Garden of the Pine Wind, Garvan Woodland Garden, Hot Springs, Arkansas

The essential elements of a dry Japanese garden are few: rocks, gravel, moss. Simultaneously a sensual matrix, a symbolic form, and a memory theater, these gardens exhibit beautiful miniaturization and precise craftsmanship. But their apparent minimalism belies a true complexity. In Zen Landscapes, Allen S. Weiss takes readers on an exciting journey through these exquisite sites, explaining how Japanese gardens must be approached according to the play of scale, surroundings, and seasons, as well as in relation to other arts—revealing them as living landscapes rather than abstract designs. Weiss shows that these gardens are inspired by the Zen aesthetics of the tea ceremony, manifested in poetry, painting, calligraphy, architecture, cuisine, and ceramics. Japanese art favors suggestion and allusion, valuing the threshold between the distinct and the inchoate, between figuration and abstraction, and he argues that ceramics play a crucial role here, relating as much to the site-specificity of landscape as to the ritualized codes of the tea ceremony and the everyday gestures of the culinary table. With more than one hundred stunning color photographs, Zen Landscapes is the first in-depth study in the West to examine the correspondences between gardens and ceramics. A fascinating look at landscape art and its relation to the customs and craftsmanship of the Japanese arts, it will appeal to readers interested in landscape design and Japan’s art and culture.

Getting started -- Designing a Japanese garden -- Elements of Japanese gardens -- Plants for Japanese gardens.