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Gardens of Gravel and Sand
Book Description
A simple and provocative book offering a revisionist photo-essay on the ever-popular Japanese "dry landscape" or "rock" gardens. Not Zen, possibly art, more like "meta-gardens," gravel and sand compositions reject nature, yet are made of omnipresent natural dust. Quick to crumble, they are defiantly maintained by priest/rakers. Credited with philosophical profundity, their origins are murky, their meanings uncertain but immediate. Koren deliberately ignores "celebrity" rocks, moss, and foliage to demystify and explore a most peculiar human enterprise. Beautifully illustrated with duotone photographs of gravel and sand gardens in Kyoto.
About the Author
Leonard Koren, who was trained as an artist and architect, writes books about design and aesthetics. Among his most popular books are WABI For Artists, Design, Poets & Philosophers and Arranging A Rhetoric of Object Placement. "Featuring over 30 photos of graval and sand gardens taken in Kyoto, Japan, this thin paperback underscores the importance of 'experienceing the garden as garden.'" -- The Tri-County News
A simple and provocative book offering a revisionist photo-essay on the ever-popular Japanese "dry landscape" or "rock" gardens. Not Zen, possibly art, more like "meta-gardens," gravel and sand compositions reject nature, yet are made of omnipresent natural dust. Quick to crumble, they are defiantly maintained by priest/rakers. Credited with philosophical profundity, their origins are murky, their meanings uncertain but immediate. Koren deliberately ignores "celebrity" rocks, moss, and foliage to demystify and explore a most peculiar human enterprise. Beautifully illustrated with duotone photographs of gravel and sand gardens in Kyoto.
About the Author
Leonard Koren, who was trained as an artist and architect, writes books about design and aesthetics. Among his most popular books are WABI For Artists, Design, Poets & Philosophers and Arranging A Rhetoric of Object Placement. "Featuring over 30 photos of graval and sand gardens taken in Kyoto, Japan, this thin paperback underscores the importance of 'experienceing the garden as garden.'" -- The Tri-County News
- GenresNonfictionArtGardening
96 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 12, 2025
this book is definitely giving “the girls are fighting” with regards to japanese garden books
This short little book was unexpectedly cynical and biting. Mainly it complains that gravel and sand in japanese gardens is not as entrenched in zen/buddhism that many western books make it out to be. It offers an alternative opinion on the meaning of these types of gardens while showcasing some examples rendered in beautiful grayscale.
Absolutely worth the 30ish minutes to go through this book.
This short little book was unexpectedly cynical and biting. Mainly it complains that gravel and sand in japanese gardens is not as entrenched in zen/buddhism that many western books make it out to be. It offers an alternative opinion on the meaning of these types of gardens while showcasing some examples rendered in beautiful grayscale.
Absolutely worth the 30ish minutes to go through this book.
July 18, 2018
A simple, beautiful book.
My first introduction to Japanese sand gardens. We're all familiar with these as a cultural reference but this book gives them an introductory context and theory. Previously I would have associated these gardens with Zen but Koren makes the point that this link is relatively new. Instead, these 'meta-gardens' have an interesting value and history quite distinct from any Zen mode of thought.
The images Koren shot are a great accompaniment to his short essays. The footnotes are perhaps just as important in this small volume, as they provide useful additions. In particular, his reference of several earlier books on sand gardens from Western and Japanese scholars.
Like many of his books, this is a direct, well considered and thoughtful object.
My first introduction to Japanese sand gardens. We're all familiar with these as a cultural reference but this book gives them an introductory context and theory. Previously I would have associated these gardens with Zen but Koren makes the point that this link is relatively new. Instead, these 'meta-gardens' have an interesting value and history quite distinct from any Zen mode of thought.
The images Koren shot are a great accompaniment to his short essays. The footnotes are perhaps just as important in this small volume, as they provide useful additions. In particular, his reference of several earlier books on sand gardens from Western and Japanese scholars.
Like many of his books, this is a direct, well considered and thoughtful object.
July 11, 2015
In half an hour, looking through this book and reading Koren's text will have you rethinking what you think you know about rock gardens. It is a pragmatic look at gravel and sand as "possibly art," and while that may not seem very enticing, it is arguably a more valuable exploration of these gardens than all the new age, Zen, and run-of-the-mill garden books put together. Koren argues that many of the gardens "were not even designed or constructed by Zen practitioners at all by by gardeners/garden designers who were of the lowest social class; there is nothing Zen-like or "spiritual" about them." (32) While his arguments may not impact the integration of said gardens into modern Zen practice, it is refreshing to find new ways of seeing these spaces that are not cliché and rhetorical.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews