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Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment
Presenting twenty-five master gardens, this landscape design book explores the ingenuity and range of Japanese landscaping, from the self-imposed confines of courtyard designs to the open expanses of the stroll garden.
No two Japanese gardens are ever the same. The Japanese Zen garden is a work of art equivalent in scale to an installation, but it is also an urban refuge, a setting where we can attain composure and equipoise. It is a place to collect our thoughts, examine deeper feelings, and ponder our responses to managed nature. Zen gardens comprise a sensory as much as a cultural experience. They are multifaceted, satisfying both our personal and intellectual yearnings.
This beautifully-photographed book illustrates a tradition that benefits from a thousand years of applied knowledge. It also demonstrates how contemporary landscaping draws from its history and reflects on why ancient gardening should be relevant to the lives of people in the twenty-first century.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Japanese gardening specialist Stephen Mansfield takes readers on an exploration of the outward forms, underpinning principles, sophisticated use of metaphor and allusion, and beauty and depth that set the Zen garden apart. Readers of his previous book, Japanese Stone Gardens , will find in this new work a worthy companion volume.
Japan's Master Gardens is an inspiring, thought-provoking tribute to the landscape design wisdom of the Japanese.
No two Japanese gardens are ever the same. The Japanese Zen garden is a work of art equivalent in scale to an installation, but it is also an urban refuge, a setting where we can attain composure and equipoise. It is a place to collect our thoughts, examine deeper feelings, and ponder our responses to managed nature. Zen gardens comprise a sensory as much as a cultural experience. They are multifaceted, satisfying both our personal and intellectual yearnings.
This beautifully-photographed book illustrates a tradition that benefits from a thousand years of applied knowledge. It also demonstrates how contemporary landscaping draws from its history and reflects on why ancient gardening should be relevant to the lives of people in the twenty-first century.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Japanese gardening specialist Stephen Mansfield takes readers on an exploration of the outward forms, underpinning principles, sophisticated use of metaphor and allusion, and beauty and depth that set the Zen garden apart. Readers of his previous book, Japanese Stone Gardens , will find in this new work a worthy companion volume.
Japan's Master Gardens is an inspiring, thought-provoking tribute to the landscape design wisdom of the Japanese.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 10, 2012
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33 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Mansfield
99 books158 followersStephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author and a popular speaker who is becoming one of the nation’s most respected voices on religion and American culture. He is also an activist in a variety of social causes.
Stephen was born in Georgia but grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, he was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book also became a source for Oliver Stone’s internationally acclaimed film W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency.
This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following eight years. Stephen wrote The Faith of the American Soldier after being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. He also wrote about the new Pope in Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and was often a topic in major media during the presidential campaign of 2008. To answer the crumbling values of portions of corporate America, he wrote The Search for God and Guinness and soon found himself speaking to corporate gatherings around the world.
Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture—recently on topics like Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and America’s generals—but beyond his writing career he has founded The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has created The Global Leadership Development Fund, a foundation that sponsors leadership training and networking around the world.
In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. He is often to be found addressing a university gathering, a corporate retreat or a fundraising banquet and stirring his audience with the humor and storytelling that have become his trademark.
Mansfield lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer. For more information, log onto MansfieldGroup.com.
Stephen was born in Georgia but grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, he was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book also became a source for Oliver Stone’s internationally acclaimed film W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency.
This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following eight years. Stephen wrote The Faith of the American Soldier after being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. He also wrote about the new Pope in Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and was often a topic in major media during the presidential campaign of 2008. To answer the crumbling values of portions of corporate America, he wrote The Search for God and Guinness and soon found himself speaking to corporate gatherings around the world.
Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture—recently on topics like Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and America’s generals—but beyond his writing career he has founded The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has created The Global Leadership Development Fund, a foundation that sponsors leadership training and networking around the world.
In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. He is often to be found addressing a university gathering, a corporate retreat or a fundraising banquet and stirring his audience with the humor and storytelling that have become his trademark.
Mansfield lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer. For more information, log onto MansfieldGroup.com.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 24, 2012
The author explains many different kinds of Japanese gardens (modular, stroll, etc.). He also reviews some of the classical philosophies associated with the various garden types. The book was very informative. I walked away from it realizing how very different Japanese gardens are to the kinds I grew up near.
My one complaint with this book is that there are too many gardens. For almost all of the gardens, there are only a couple of pages of text and pictures. I feel like I would have gotten more out of this book had he chosen fewer gardens and documented them in greater detail. Because there were so many introduced with such little description, some of them seemed to blend into each other. I would have preferred choosing one or two characteristic gardens of each kind and really thoroughly documenting them so that their differences really stood out.
My one complaint with this book is that there are too many gardens. For almost all of the gardens, there are only a couple of pages of text and pictures. I feel like I would have gotten more out of this book had he chosen fewer gardens and documented them in greater detail. Because there were so many introduced with such little description, some of them seemed to blend into each other. I would have preferred choosing one or two characteristic gardens of each kind and really thoroughly documenting them so that their differences really stood out.
May 19, 2022
This was alright. It was nice to be introduced to all the great gardens of Japan but there wasn’t enough stopping and pictures for them. I would read about one and then go watch a tour online to supplement my learning. I used this more as a quick list to read briefly about how they came to be and their main features and then I went and supplemented my learning elsewhere.
August 13, 2025
Another coffee table japanese garden book
I wish it went a bit more in depth for each garden. I liked the explanation before each section of the book but I felt like the section on each garden could have had a bit more explanation. The photos were beautiful and I’m so happy they included an Okinawan garden!
I wish it went a bit more in depth for each garden. I liked the explanation before each section of the book but I felt like the section on each garden could have had a bit more explanation. The photos were beautiful and I’m so happy they included an Okinawan garden!
June 19, 2017
Fewer of the "dry" gardens that I love, but still beautiful.
October 4, 2020
There are some lovely gardens in here. I have only visited Shinjuku Gyoen and it is beautiful!
July 21, 2021
Beautiful book, that gives a real insight into the nature of Japanese gardens and the pictures are stunning!
April 20, 2024
Semi-inspired remarks coupled with bleak, stale photographs. A huge disappointment and a missed opportunity.
June 28, 2013
There was a nice selection of Japanese gardens featured in this book but I'm surprised Mansfield chose the gardens he chose. For each garden, Mansfield gives who commissioned it, where it is located, what type of garden it is (landscape? stroll? rock?) and when it was built. One garden featured dated all the way back to the 10th century! wow ._O !
The gardens are also clumped together by type and the author gives a little 2-3 page description of the type of garden before the reader views the selection. 3 Stars because I felt Mansfield would make points he would not explain in these descriptions (ie. this type of garden is very self contradictory...ok, why?).
Most of the gardens featured are in Tokyo or Kyoto, which only makes sense considering one is the present day capital and the other was a more ancient center of political activity. I was giddy to see gardens I visited in Nara and even the stroll garden a 10 minute bike ride away from my home of Okayama (Koraku-en) were featured.
The gardens are also clumped together by type and the author gives a little 2-3 page description of the type of garden before the reader views the selection. 3 Stars because I felt Mansfield would make points he would not explain in these descriptions (ie. this type of garden is very self contradictory...ok, why?).
Most of the gardens featured are in Tokyo or Kyoto, which only makes sense considering one is the present day capital and the other was a more ancient center of political activity. I was giddy to see gardens I visited in Nara and even the stroll garden a 10 minute bike ride away from my home of Okayama (Koraku-en) were featured.
September 19, 2012
Nice pics.
April 28, 2017
Hey - get a few stone lanterns, put a couple of wooden bridges over water and plunk down a few rocks and then you have yourself a Japanese garden.
Wrong — even though this pattern is repeated again and again in the west.
Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment is a fantastic look at the wide variety of REAL Japanese gardens in Japan. The stories and many many photos offer more than glimpses of different styles and gardens around the island nation. Taken together they offer an explanation of what makes a Japanese garden -- the ideas and philosophies as well as their histories and evolution.
The images are beautiful and help build understanding. Like me, you’ll find this book will grow your list of must see spots in Japan.
Wrong — even though this pattern is repeated again and again in the west.
Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment is a fantastic look at the wide variety of REAL Japanese gardens in Japan. The stories and many many photos offer more than glimpses of different styles and gardens around the island nation. Taken together they offer an explanation of what makes a Japanese garden -- the ideas and philosophies as well as their histories and evolution.
The images are beautiful and help build understanding. Like me, you’ll find this book will grow your list of must see spots in Japan.
September 21, 2013
bend oregon larry parker
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews