The first thing that will strike any reader on opening "Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto" is that this book is a work of photographic art. The photos of John Einarsen span all seasons and somehow ...

There is something magical about Kyoto in autumn. Almost every temple, shrine, and garden in the historic town are surrounded by beautiful Japanese maple and ginkgo trees as they shift from red to ...

The gardens of Japan have graced both landscape and life for over a thousand years. Regarded as works of art, they lend insight into the nation’s history and culture. In Japanese Garden Design, ...

The gardens of Japan have fascinated ever since the 1854 Treaty of Kamagawa opened the country to the West and they first came to the attention of the garden-making cognoscenti. Imitations are now ...

Kita-no-Mandokoro, wife of the lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–98), ordered the construction of Kōdaiji in 1606 to pray for her husband’s departed soul. The temple’s formal title is Kōdaijushōzenji—said ...

From the Hello Kitty Haruka Express to Heian Jingu Shrine, Gemma Fullam explores one of Japan's most fascinating cities Kinkakuji's paradise gardens, which include a flying crane lake and a tortoise ...

I like nothing better than to go and explore gardens and to let my imagination ponder on what's to be seen. Kyoto has plenty of places just waiting to be discovered, and the best way to go and see its ...

When asked how to view a Japanese garden, designer Kinsaku Nakane (1917-1995) replied: “With a detached gaze, without preconceptions and in a state of total receptivity”. Since their earliest history ...

A new study has found that a delicate moss, which gives temple grounds their distinctive air of mellow tranquillity, is in rapid decline because of warmer weather and changing rainfall. The research, ...

In the world of Japanese landscape gardening, whether as writers, apprentices or designers, women seem to be conspicuous by their absence. There are, however, a small number of notable exceptions.