Customer Reviews

Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing the Japanese Garden

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

 

 

Being quite new to Japanese garden architecture I first try to learn and understand what's done and what's not done and the reasons behind it. This book immediately shows you why Shigemori is a so much respected innovator in his time and at the same time explains you why by referring to the classical Japanese gardens. His point of view is that a Japanese garden should fit into the time we are living in. And up until than, Japanese gardens had not changed much. Newer gardens used to be copies of the old methods instead of innovations. This work opens your mind about this and stimulates you to develop the concept of the Japanese garden into something which is more modern/timebound and more a creation of yourself.
An absolute 'mustread' for people that like the Japanese garden.

Well written and explained in terms that we(regular mortals) can understand. Mr. Shigemori was ahead of his time in terms of thinking and producing gardens of exceptional clarity, beauty & simplicity.
If you ever consider 'doing' or having someone do a Japanese garden concept for you then this book is a must prior to you deciding how to.
Great book and great pictures with detail explanations.

Mirei Shigemori (1896-1975) was the imaginative creator of very special gardens and a scholar who was trained in painting, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony. Shigemori is still admired for his contemporary designs, the result of his life's objective to restore the evolution of the Japanese garden. In Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing The Japanese Garden, practicing landscape architect Christian Tschumi explores ten major Shigemori projects ranging from the checker-board garden of Tofukuji (1939) and the "Hidden Christian" dry landscape at Zuiho-in (1961), to the masterful stone settings at Matsuo Taisha (1975), all while utilizing a design/cultural analysis, garden plans, and a profusion of illustrative photographs taken by visual artist and photographer Markuz Wernli Saito. Mirei Shigemori: Modernizing The Japanese Garden is a welcome and respected contribution that will be of immense interest to professional gardeners, landscapists, horticultural experts, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in Japanese gardening and culture.