Coffee Table Book of: Zen Gardens (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Zen Gardens is a large format book of zen gardens and quiet places, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: dry gardens of raked gravel and weathered rock, moss gardens under maples and cedars, still ponds, stone lanterns, bamboo groves, bare rooms lit by a single candle, and misty mountains at dawn.

The dry gardens are seen from the veranda at many hours: pale gravel raked in long straight lines and in rings round low rocks, a tall stone under the full moon, a dry waterfall of rock and gravel, a small red maple on a moss island, gravel under thin snow and in heavy rain, and a lone ginkgo in gold beside a raked courtyard.

Moss gardens glow in summer rain and low morning sun beneath tall cedars, crossed by stepping stones and strewn with maple leaves and fallen camellias. The ponds lie still: maples and cherry blossom mirrored in dark water, koi gliding under lily pads, a heron and a frog in the shallows, a zigzag bridge over purple irises, a pebble shore and an arched bridge in snow.

Stone lanterns stand in moss and ferns, on a rock in a pond and half buried in snow, some glowing at dusk and after dark, beside low stone basins fed by bamboo pipes and a deer scarer tipping onto its stone. Inside, bare rooms of straw mats and paper doors open onto green gardens, a polished floor mirrors the maples, a tea bowl and whisk rest on the mats, an iron kettle steams over charcoal, and a single candle lights a tea room at night.

Beyond the garden walls, misty mountains fade ridge behind ridge at dawn, a lone pine stands above a sea of cloud, an empty boat waits on a lake in white mist, and the full moon rises over a dark ridge.

Short notes run through the book, on how dry gardens, moss gardens and ponds are made and cared for, the lanterns, basins and tea rooms within them, and the plants and weather that change them through the year: a dry garden holds no water at all: its raked gravel stands in for sea, river or lake, stone lanterns first lit the paths and halls of temples before they came into gardens, a tea whisk is cut from a single piece of bamboo, split into dozens of fine tines, and bamboo fences are tied with knots of dark palm fibre rope, which lasts for years outdoors.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.