Zen Garden

by David Holzer

Hardcover Barnes&Noble Bks.,2005 (2005) English 0760773203 978-0760773208

Genres: Gardening

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[W.B.]

I think this little book came with one of those novelty desktop zen stone gardens. While I found this in a thrift store without the Japanese rock garden, I must say Holzer did a fantastic job of describing the evolution of the Japanese garden over many centuries. He shows how both its design and underlying purpose(s) fluctuated with the changes in Japanese social order, belief systems and even architecture. It's nicely illustrated with decent photographs of the various famous gardens of Japan. Despite the context and raison d'etre for the book (chi-chi desktop garden kit) it's a really decent and succinct work of scholarship.