Houses and Gardens of Kyoto. In this case, you can tell a book by its cover. This is one of the two or three most beautiful Japanese gardens we’ve ever seen. And it’s not just about Japanese gardens. The houses (actually houses and other types of buildings) present some of the most perfect artistry and craftsmanship anywhere and the gardens are every bit as good.
Best of all, the photos are original (well, almost all of them)
If you’ve spent much time with garden books from Japan, you may have noticed that most of them feature many of the same photos. What’s worse, many of the photos aren’t that good. Thankfully, this sumptuous new book doesn’t do that. The photos (500 of them) are as original as they are beautiful.
You could build a walk like this. Or something inspired by this, or by some other photo in the book.
What the publisher has to say
“For all the damage that has occurred over the centuries, for all the relentless and destructive modernization still taking place today, Kyoto, imperial capital for more than a millennium, remains a rich, inexhaustible archive of Japanese cultural history.
“Houses and Gardens of Kyoto introduces a broad array of Kyoto’s traditional houses from every period of the city’s history. They range from summer villas to townhouses, from monumental Buddhist temples to insubstantial garden pavilions, from personal homes to traditional inns. All have their associated outdoor spaces, whether condensed courtyard gardens, picturesque stroll gardens, “dry landscape” stone gardens, or the “borrowed scenery” of distant landscapes.
“Both exquisite photo album and fascinating historical study, Houses and Gardens of Kyoto is sure to be the standard reference work on this topic for many decades to come.”
by: Thomas Daniell
Akihiko Seki Photographer
Illustrations: over 500 color photos
Page Count: 224
Binding: Hardcover
Trimsize: 9 X 9 1/2
$39.95 marked down to $32.00