Posted in nature, travel and places, gardens on Aug 11th, 2006 1 Comment »
Kokoen, ‘The Garden of Love for Antiquity’ is not very antique itself as it was only built in 1992. It is, however, a pleasant group of gardens (in fact there are nine), laid out on the spot where once the Nishi-Oyashiki (the West Mansion) of Himeji Castle stood. The gardens are enclosed in white washed […]
Posted in travel and places, religion and philosophy, gardens, temples on Jul 30th, 2006 No Comments »
In Takagamine, in the quiet northern part of Kyoto, stands Koetsuji, famous for a fence of bamboo designed by the artist Hon’ami Koetsu. It is more an explosion of green than a temple, particularly when we visit in the hottest and wettest month of the year, August. After a shower, the smell of earth and […]
Posted in nature, travel and places, gardens on Jul 29th, 2006 1 Comment »
Kanazawa, the historical town in Ishikawa prefecture, boasts two superb gardens. One is famous and public, the other private and much less well-known. One is bright and open, the other dark and secluded. The first one is the famous Kenrokuen, one of Japan’s daimyo gardens; lesser-known Gyokusenen is the other one. A visit to both […]
Posted in writing and poetry, nature, travel and places, museums, gardens on Jun 11th, 2006 No Comments »
Novelist Yoshikawa Eiji (1892-1962) was a self-made popular author. He wrote 70 voluminous novels, mostly about historical subjects, of which four have been (partly) translated into English: The Heike Story, Musashi, and Taiko.
Yoshikawa Eiji was born into an ex-samurai family in Kanagawa and spent his youth in Yokohama. He has written vividly about those days […]
Posted in nature, travel and places, gardens, intercultural on Jun 10th, 2006 No Comments »
English lawns, French roses and Japanese cherries, that is what you will find in Shinjuku Gyoen, making it a good example of an early 20th c. “multicultural garden.”
With its 53 hectares, Shinjuku Gyoen is such a large oasis of green in the heart of the city that it is almost unbelievable. Although the high-rises are […]
Posted in architecture, travel and places, gardens, intercultural on Jun 4th, 2006 No Comments »
The Furukawa Gardens were laid out in 1914 by the head of the Furukawa Zaibatsu, one of Japan’s earliest business groups. The British architect, Josiah Conder (1852-1920), was asked to design a Western-style house and garden in front of it; the Japanese garden was designed by the prominent Kyoto garden architect Ogawa Jihei.
The house - […]
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