Customer Reviews

The Hidden Gardens of Kyoto

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The impressively visual photography of Katsuhiko Mizuno deftly combine with the infomative text of Masaaki Ono in The Hidden Gardens Of Kyoto, an amazingly beautiful photography book presenting captivating images of Kyoto gardens. The full-color pictures come with captions in fine print that succinctly inform the reader of the garden's location and style of composition. A summary of basic information and common Japanese garden formations is included in the back, but the majority of The Hidden Gardens Of Kyoto is devoted to resplendent photographs of the gardens themselves. A singularly beautiful treasury.

This book provides an excellent inside look at kyoto's historical gardens, though without much of the context in which they exist (e.g. surrounding city, houses). The photography is fantastic as it realistically shows the reader both the intricate details & broad strokes that make up these complex settings. Keep in mind, it is a serious piece of work and the descriptions are somewhat short and/or dry (but maybe that's the point).

After visiting Kyoto , i think this book gives us many opportunities to appreciate so many details of the wonderful and chaming japanes gardens of the ancient Japan capital.
And the pictures overall taken in fall period are much better,in my opinion, to the spring pictures

this is a book about not so common visited places, although tere are also some very "touristic" places. the pictures are nice to good, it gives a good overview about Kyoto. I was a little disapointed that the Nanzenji temple is not commented. but if you are fond of Japanese gardens it is a good picture book that give you ideas.

Great picture book, but there isn't much in the way of detailed commentary. Would have enjoyed this book a lot more if there had been some focus on exactly what was highlighted in the photo.

This a beautiful collection of large-sized well composed photographs of the different type of gardens found throughout Kyoto. They are accompanied with brief text on their design principles and historical background. Might proof useful as inspiration and reference for anyone writing and/or illustrating a story set in Feudal Japan like Samurai-Ninja stories. It might also be a nice surprise present to Anime/Manga fans by adding another dimension to their collections.