A Japanese Touch for your Garden
First published 1980, revised and expanded 2008, Kodansha International, 94 pages with copious illustrations in colour, ISBN 978-4-7700-3079-5
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
The aim of this book is stated to be how to “Give a Japanese touch to your entire garden or only to a corner of it, using a partition or fencing or shrubs. Or incorporate separate Japanese elements into your Western-style garden.”
The book is well produced and provides a succinct overview of Japanese garden design. The first section covers “The Courtyard Garden,” “The Stone Garden” and “Tree and Water Garden.” The second section covers the elements of Japanese gardens such as layout, stone groupings, stone lanterns, water basins, bamboo fences, plants and trees as well as techniques such as shaping and pruning trees. Much valuable information is summarised and the photographs are good and helpful, for instance those on pages 50 and 51 showing different patterns of stones and on pages 56 and 57 explaining the various styles of Japanese lanterns used in Japanese gardens.
Despite its value as a summary of the basic elements in constructing a Japanese style garden the book does not really fulfil its stated aim. I did not feel that the book really helped me to decide how best to bring a real (and not a mock) Japanese element into a traditional English garden. Often the most difficult issue arises from the existence of English buildings and other traditional features which are difficult to disguise or reduce the imported Japanese element into an unsatisfactory and artificial contrivance.
The book is perhaps designed more for the American than the British market and does not give practical guidance about where and how materials such as stone and bamboo fences can be found here. The list of Japanese gardens in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the appendix on page 93 is inadequate.
The British Gardener seeking practical advice on adding a Japanese touch to his or her garden would find much more useful than this book The Japanese Way Garden Designs by the late Maureen Busby, published by the Japanese Garden Society in 2008.