The Art of the Japanese Garden: History / Culture / Design

As a Volunteer Guide at our Portland Japanese Garden (one of the very best in North America), I've collected a number of Garden books. This book is my favorite. It is nicely illustrated with pictures, drawings, maps and diagrams. The narrative concerning Garden history, styles and design principles is clear, and concise. Many of the prominent Gardens in Japan are featured. It covers both classical and more modern styles of Gardens. If you get one book on Japanese Gardens, make it this one.

This book is so beautiful that could be a nice present to anybody.First impression: cover with a matte finish gives a pleasant feeling and you'll enjoy to keep this book in your hands. The quality of the pictures is excellent. They are bright and with the good contrast.I like that in addition to the pictures there are a lot of graphical layouts and maps that help to understand the text. You will find description of all the styles of the Japanese gardens, their basic elements and principles. I also liked historical overviews. English is not my native language but the text is clear and easy to read.As a person who worked in the printing house, I should say that this is a very beautiful and high quality edition that was done carefully and with love.Victoria Lando, Finland

Gorgeous, informative. Perhaps a bit difficult to put into practical application.

This book has a huge number of really lovely photos and they were taken in different seasons. Also, the written material is substantial and very informative.

I ordered this book somewhat "blind" without having seen it in a bookstore, etc. When it arrived, I must say that I was thrilled with the quality of the text, photos and other illustrations. The book thoroughly covers the basic history, principles and aesthetics of Japanese Gardens. Then it takes an in-depth look at some of the finest gardens of each type found in Japan. Highly recommended.

Beautiful pictures, and explanations of the different aspects of Japanese gardens

The book was a gift for my brother

Really a great intro to Japanese gardens. One of the best 4 books I own out of over a dozen related to this topic.

Great book ! Well documented and well written. The photos are excellent !

The book is good but photographs are small.

Very nice book

A great primer on Japanese garden styles.Very accessible explanations, beautiful photography and illustrations, and excellent value for money.A great compliment to this book is Kawaguchi's 'Authentic Japanese Gardens', which shares similar characteristics.If you also enjoy books on this topic that are less 'how to' and more simply about beautiful photographs of beautiful Japanese gardens, then Itoh's 'The Gardens of Japan' is considered to be a classic along those lines, but it is showing its age, in terms of many of the photos being printed in black & white (interspersed with some nice full-page colour plates). Note that different editions of the book vary in size!.To my surprise, the images in Brown & Cobb's 'Quiet Beauty' are outstanding. I say surprise because this book is about North American examples of Japanese style gardens, and they can often miss the mark, but this book is largely an exception to that, and is filled with superb absolutely pin-sharp photography of some beautiful gardens. If you're a sucker for Japanese style gardens and photographs of them, then I highly recommend 'Quiet Beauty'. I have yet to find a book on the gardens in mainland Japan that trumps the equisite photography Cobb did of the North American gardens, and overlooking this book on account of the gardens not actualy being in Japan would be a missed opportunity - I know this because I myself nearly fell into that trap. If you're intending to build your own garden, then you will probably want to obtain some books on the philosophical underpinnings of how the Japanese styles evolved, some books on practical construction methods, and some for beautiful images that serve as inspiration.

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