Our Man in Japan IV

3 April 2012

Steve has visited one of the quintessential Japanese temple gardens:

'I have witnessed Shisen-do.  It’s perhaps one of my personal favourite Japanese gardens for its style, scale and sensitivity.  Almost hidden from the approach to the garden, the entrance courtyard is restrained; arched-over with blue bamboo and interplanted with glossy leaved camellia.  The temple, named after the portraits of 36 poets housed there, originated from the work of Ishikawa Jozan (1583 - 1672), a scholar of garden design, the arts, tea and philosophy.

The temple and gardens are set within the natural landscape which forms both backdrop and counterpoint to the exquisitely manicured azaleas.  The gently sloping topography directs both your ‘stroll’ and the view.  The gardens exude a quiet, contemplative calm.   The combination of materials (both planting and built elements), and also the spatial configuration of the garden, transport you to the wider landscape.  At the same time they initiate an intimate connection with the much smaller scale and detail of the garden.  This high level of fine horticultural practice and enduring, philosophical design-thinking enables you to at once perceive the garden as the world, and the world within the garden.'

Our Man in Japan III

1 April 2012

Steve has travelled to Osaka, located on the Yodo River.  It is one of Japan's important economic centres:

'For me, Osaka seems to be a city where very little soil is exposed to the air.  I’m experiencing this very urban landscape through its hidden spaces and back streets, but as much through the traditionally prepared and cooked foods.  The tastes are rooted in both the land and in the people; in their skill of growing, harvesting, preparing, cooking and presenting the food.  All this is transferred directly into me when I’m experiencing the pleasure of eating what I'm being offered.  In this sense we absorb and become a little of the lands and cultures we travel through.'