The Modern Japanese Garden is the first survey of its kind to trace Japanese garden design across the modern era, mapping the shift from status symbol to space of healing through profiles of iconic gardens from Tokyo to Fukuoka.
About This Book
From the stone arrangements of pre-Shinto Japan to the corporate courtyards and museum gardens of today, this landmark publication charts the full arc of Japanese garden design with analytical depth rarely found in landscape literature. Structured roughly around the divide of 1945, the book examines how post-war Japan reoriented the garden away from expressions of power and toward spaces of contemplation and mediation. Garden profiles span landscape-scale works and intimate domestic commissions across Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Okayama, Fujisawa, and Fukuoka, with particular attention to recently completed examples. Essays by Kengo Kuma, Mira Locher, Tim Richardson, and Masuno Shunmyo bring critical perspective to themes in contemporary Japanese landscape design, while interludes on sites such as Ryoan-ji ground the broader analysis in specific, historically resonant works.
Key Features
- 352 pages of garden profiles, historical analysis, critical essays, and photographic documentation
- Essays by Kengo Kuma, Mira Locher, Tim Richardson, and Masuno Shunmyo
- Case studies including Ryoan-ji, Kyoto, alongside contemporary corporate, museum, hotel, and public space gardens
- Published by Thames & Hudson
What You'll Discover
- How post-war shifts in Japanese society transformed the garden from a marker of status and influence into a site of healing, meditation, and quiet contemplation
- The aesthetic lexicon specific to Japanese garden design — its principles, spatial logics, and the vocabulary that distinguishes it from Western landscape traditions
- How Japan's contemporary gardens for corporate buildings, museums, hotels, and public spaces negotiate between historical precedent and modern programme
- The designers who shaped modern Japanese garden culture, examined through both biographical insight and analysis of their key works
About the Author
Stephen Mansfield is a writer and photographer specialising in Japanese culture, landscape, and design. His work on Japan spans garden history, urban culture, and the built environment, and he has contributed to numerous publications focused on Asian art and architecture.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 352
- Dimensions: 28.0 x 23.0 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780500026243
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Landscape architects, garden designers, Japan specialists, architectural historians, and design enthusiasts drawn to the intersection of culture, spatial practice, and ecological thinking.