100 Japanese Gardens: The Best Gardens to Visit in Japan

100 Japanese Gardens is an ambitious attempt to profile some of the finest gardens in Japan, but also to feature little known, highly accomplished landscapes in less visited parts of the country. A celebration of Japanese landscape designs, author and photojournalist Stephen Mansfield journeys from the northern, sub-arctic region of Hokkaido to the semi-tropical islands of Okinawa, in a quest to identify some of the most impressive gardens in this long and culturally varied archipelago. His erudition and love of the Japanese garden, appearing in this compact format, can be consulted as a primer for travel to Japan, a portable guide, or an armchair read. As an introduction to the diversity of garden styles in Japan, the book examines design concepts and principles, aesthetics, space management, compositional elements, and the iconographic and metaphysical role of Tao and Buddhist symbolism. Through exquisite visuals and descriptions written in a creative and engaging style, we experience Japanese garden designs not merely as landscapes, but as a large-scale art form.