Boston Flora

Tag: Japanese Gardens

  • Tuesday, February 28, 6:00 pm Eastern – Creating Japanese Inspired Gardens in New England, Online

    Lee Schneller Sligh went to Japan for the first time in 1974 and has designed hundreds of gardens in New England, many of them Japanese-inspired. 

    Join The Japan Society of Boston on February 28 at 6 pm online to hear about Lee’s journey and her work while learning about some of the Japanese garden design principles such as “Hide and Reveal” and “The Beauty of Empty Space”. Lee will also talk about rock work and how to achieve a natural effect in the garden. Questions will be welcomed throughout the talk. Free admission but a $10 donation to The Japan Society is encouraged. Register at https://japansocietyboston.wildapricot.org/event-5116629

  • Saturday, July 10, 7:00 pm – Japanese Gardens: A Kyoto Introduction with Gavin Campbell, Online

    Few cultures have gardened with a greater passion than the Japanese. Explore more with a local Kyoto expert, Gavin Campbell, and Context Travel, with an online introduction to these fascinating spaces. The event takes place July 10 at 7 and is $36.50. Register HERE

    The attention to garden detail in Japan is unlike any other culture. Their spellbinding tranquility and their bold use of color, shape, and rhythm, gardens are one of Japan’s greatest artistic triumphs. And nowhere is there a greater concentration of these masterworks than Kyoto. This tour provides a basic overview of these mesmerizing spaces of emerald green and ancient stone.

    We begin with the aesthetic principles that guide their construction and maintenance. These include “mono no aware” (the passing of all things), “wabi” (the beauty of austerity) “shakkei” (borrowed scenery), “miegakure” (hide and reveal) and “ma” (space or interval).

    With these fundamental building blocks as our guide, we then delve deep into a number of representative gardens, including the Zen rock garden of Ryōanji, the tea garden of Kōtō-in, the warrior garden at Kinkakuji, and a Kyoto merchant’s townhouse garden. Each of these jewels illuminates basic design principles, while also showing how the needs of different clients gave rise to different gardening styles.

    Gavin received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and came to Kyoto in 2001. He is a Ph.D. professor of history at Doshisha University. His teaching and research revolve around Japan’s cultural encounters with the West, particularly during the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and early Showa periods (1600-1940), and he has published on the history of foreign tourism and of Protestant missionaries in Japan. To further explore Japan’s global cultural encounters, he is currently writing a book on the history of Japanese menswear from the 1600s through the early 20th century. He is also an expert on Kyoto geisha culture and a frequent participant in geisha entertainment.

  • Friday, November 1, 7:30 pm – Space for Well-being: Japanese Spatial Concepts in Gardens and Architecture

    Why do we feel contemplative in Japanese gardens and architecture? Can our physical environment foster our mindfulness and well-being? Yoko Kawai, lecturer at Yale School of Architecture and co-founder of Mirai Work Space, discusses the mind-body-space relationship found in Japanese gardens and architecture that is instrumental to mindfulness. Japanese spatial concepts like ma (in-between-ness), utsuroi (transience) and yugen (the unknown) are examined as key concepts. Tea gardens and teahouses are introduced as traditional examples from which we can learn for the contemporary mindful environment. The event is the opening lecture of the Chrysanthemum Show in the Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College, and begins at 7 pm on November 1. The show will run from Sunday, November 2 – Sunday, November 17. Free and open to the public. For more information visit https://garden.smith.edu/events

    Yoko Kawai, PhD, is a lecturer at Yale School of Architecture. Her mission is to create “space for well-being” by utilizing the Japanese spatial concepts. She co-founded Mirai Work Space Alliance in New York to bring this idea to contemporary workplaces. She is also the cofounder and principal of Penguin Environmental Design in Hamden, CT, which focuses on incorporating landscape into architecture. Its works include a residential project that received CTC&G Award in 2015 and a Japanese garden at Frost Valley YMCA in 2014. Yoko has published articles in various scholarly journals, including Journal of Green Building and Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering.

  • Wednesday, April 24, 5:30 pm – Curator’s Travelog: Todd Rounsaville in Japan

    On Wednesday, April 24 at 5:30 at Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, Martha’s Vineyard, take a virtual trip to the mountains and forests of Japan with PHA Curator Todd Rounsaville. In September 2018, Todd traveled to Honshu, Japan in collaboration with staff from the Arnold Arboretum and Morris Arboretum to collect seed of rare and horticulturally important plants. Collecting predominately in mountainous forests, the group returned with many species have never been cultivated at their respective gardens, with an emphasis on azaleas, enkianthus, stewartia, maples, and hydrangeas. $10 general admission, $5 for PHA members.

  • Sundays, April 3 and 10, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Garden Adventurers Lectures

    On Sundays, April 3 and April 10, come to Heritage Museum & Gardens, 67 Grove Street in Sandwich, and travel to exotic gardens vicariously through the exploits of other Garden Adventurers! On April 3, Jonathan Shaw will share his visits to Japan’s most beautiful and unique gardens, including Kenrokuen Garden (The Six Sublimities, pictured below) in Kanazawa and Saihoji (The Temple Moss Garden). Mr. Shaw was formerly Director of the New England Wildflower Society at the Garden in the Woods near Boston, and is the retired President of Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida. He lives in Sandwich, his native town, where he has an extensive garden in the Village that he and Norwegian wife Eugenie maintain. Then on April 10, Linda Calmes Jones, who chairs Heritage’s Board of Trustees, will share her garden travel experience to London’s Chelsea Flower Show (The Great Spring Show) and various English gardens. Join them for both of these inspiring presentations, free with museum admission.  For more information, log on to www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org, or call 508-888-3300.  Image from www.kanazawa-tourism.com.

  • Tuesday, October 26 – Thursday, November 4 – Wabi Sabi 2010

    It is well understood that the nature of Japanese gardens differs greatly from those in the Western World. They are regarded as representing the universe and its elements, and expressing a specific philosophy. Some of the most highly acclaimed are those located in and around the ancient city of Kyoto. This fall, Tuesday, October 26 – Thursday, November 4,  a small group, limited to only 20 participants, will enjoy a unique opportunity to visit some of the most renowned gardens, temples and palaces in this region personally selected by Professor Lennox Tierney, current Curator of the Art of Japan for the Utah State Museum of Fine Arts, the Mingei Museum, San Diego, and Art Director of San Diego’s Japanese Friendship Garden.

    Professor Tierney is also the author of “The Nature of Japanese Garden Art”, in which he examines the Zen principles that relate to Japanese gardens, and the terms WABI SABI, which reflect the value of understatement and the richness of aging. On the tour he will provide a unique orientation and understanding of the many specific elements encountered in the places visited. In 2007 Professor Tierney received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his services.

    For pricing information, contact Sterling Tours at 619-299-3010, or email sterling1@cox.net.  The web site for Sterling Tours is www.sterlingtours.info.

    http://www.csuohio.edu/class/history/japan/JapImages/kenrokuen1.jpg

  • Friday, October 23, 6:30 pm – Kyoto: City of Gardens

    For more than 1200 years, the gardens of Kyoto have reflected the cultural characteristics of each successive era of Japanese history.  In this talk on Friday, October 23, beginning at 6:30 pm,  MARC PETER KEANE, landscape designer and historian of Japanese gardens, will discuss the cultural forces — social, religious, economic, artistic, and architectural – that have shaped the gardens of Kyoto from the time of the Tale of Genji (10th century) to the present.  1200 years ago, the Emperor of Japan settled his court in a newly-built city, Heian-kyô, now known as Kyôto. Gardens were built at the residences of the imperial courtiers, and have been built in that city ever since, their design changing over time as the ebb and flow of society replaced one culture with another. Marc Peter Keane, garden historian and specialist in Japanese gardens, will discuss those cultural changes — social, religious, economic, artistic, architectural — and how each new form of Kyoto garden reflects the cultural environment of its time. His talk will include: pond gardens at courtier residences in the Heian-period, medieval gardens of raked sand and stones, tea gardens, and courtyard gardens of urban merchant houses.  Marc Peter Keane lived in Kyoto for 18 years, designing gardens for private individuals, companies and temples, and continues that work now from his studio in Ithaca, New York. His books include Japanese Garden Design (an introduction to the culture and aesthetics of Japanese gardens), Sakuteiki (a translation of the Japan’s oldest gardening treatise), The Art of Setting Stones (eight essays on the meaning of gardens), and the soon-to-be-published, Japanese Tea Gardens.This talk is part of  the Kyoto-Boston 50th Anniversary celebration.  Please rsvp at www.us-japan.org.

    The Japan Society of Boston
    at Showa Boston Institute
    420 Pond St., Boston MA
    Free and open to the public

    http://www.mpkeane.com/sakuteikimd.jpg