| architecture |
| calligraphy |
| ceramics |
| clothing |
| comics |
| gardens |
| lacquerwork |
| literature |
| movies |
| music |
| painting |
| poetry |
| sculpture |
| tea ceremony |
| television |
| theatre |
| weaponry |
| thematic routes |
| timeline |
| the site |
context: gardens > sources
Zen Gardens by Erik Borja
Borja is an international garden designer, specialising in Japanese-style Zen gardens. He bluffs a bit on Zen history, claiming it became "more widespread from the end of the twelfth century" - since it only arrived in Japan in 1191, this is not good. Also, two quotes from captions: "The garden of Shoden-ji, Kyoto, which is attributed to Mirei Shigemori (c.1600)..." and "The garden of Tofuku-ji, Kyoto, was designed by Mirei Shigemori in 1938-39..." That's a hell of a career! Anyway, he is much better on aesthetics, even though he is often talking far more about his own ideas than the classical Zen ones a lot of the time, blurring any distinctions (which are sometimes substantial) between the two. A title like "How to make Zennish gardens my way" would have removed almost all my objections to this book - and I do think Borja is a wonderful garden designer.