Quiet Beauty
The Japanese Gardens of North America
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- $45.99
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- $45.99
Publisher Description
*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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The gently flowing streams, crushed-rock paths, and koi-filled ponds of Japanese gardens invite tranquil meditation beauty, nature, and order. Yet, the 150-year history of Japanese gardens in American culture raises complicated questions about authenticity, design, style, and meaning. In this lavishly illustrated book, art historian Brown and photographer Cobb act as tour guides to 26 such gardens including the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Francisco Nitobe Memorial Garden in Vancouver, B.C., and Sh mu'en (Pine Mist Garden) at Cheekwood in Nashville, Tenn. that are accessible, historically significant, and compelling physical spaces. The first Japanese-style gardens were built between the 1890s and 1920s, often at fairs and expositions in an effort to satisfy the curiosity of Westerners obsessed with Japan; these early tea gardens were often built by the "first generation of Japanese immigrants anxious to leave the forms of their ancestors in the land of their descendants." After WWII, friendship gardens multiplied, designed by distinguished Japanese landscape artists as a way of building ties and promoting business with former enemies. By the 1960 and 1970s, homeowners began building Japanese-style gardens in their backyards, as authentic as their budgets would allow; today's Japanese gardens focus on the power of such places to "calm, inspire, and even heal." 180 color photos.
