The essential elements of a dry Japanese garden are
few: rocks, gravel, moss. Simultaneously a sensual
matrix, a symbolic form and a memory theatre, these
gardens exhibit beautiful miniaturization and precise
craftsmanship. However, their apparent minimalism belies
a deeper complexity. In Zen Landscapes, Allen S. Weiss
takes readers on a journey through these exquisite
sites, explaining how Japanese gardens must be
approached according to the play of scale, surroundings
and seasons, as well as in relation to other arts, thus
revealing them as living landscapes rather than abstract
designs. These gardens are inspired by the Zen
aesthetics of the tea ceremony, manifested in poetry,
painting, calligraphy, architecture, cuisine and
ceramics. Japanese art favours suggestion and allusion,
valuing the threshold between the distinct and the
inchoate, between figuration and abstraction, and Weiss
argues that ceramics play a crucial role here, relating
as much to the site-specificity of landscape as to the
ritualized codes of the tea ceremony and the everyday
gestures of the culinary table. With more than 100
stunning colour photographs, Zen Landscapes is the first
in-depth study in the West to examine the
correspondences between gardens and ceramics. A
fascinating look at landscape art and its relation to
the customs and craftsmanship of the Japanese arts, it
will appeal to readers interested in landscape design
and Japan's art and culture.
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