Japanese Gardens at American World’S Fairs, 1876–1940 Anthony Alofsin: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Aesthetics of Japan

A Publication of the Foundation for Landscape Studies A Journal of Place Volume ıv | Number ı | Fall 2008 Essays: The Long Life of the Japanese Garden 2 Paula Deitz: Plum Blossoms: The Third Friend of Winter Natsumi Nonaka: The Japanese Garden: The Art of Setting Stones Marc Peter Keane: Listening to Stones Elizabeth Barlow Rogers: Tea and Sympathy: A Zen Approach to Landscape Gardening Kendall H. Brown: Fair Japan: Japanese Gardens at American World’s Fairs, 1876–1940 Anthony Alofsin: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Aesthetics of Japan Book Reviews 18 Joseph Disponzio: The Sun King’s Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre and the Creation of the Garden of Versailles By Ian Thompson Elizabeth Barlow Rogers: Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition By Robert Pogue Harrison Calendar 22 Tour 23 Contributors 23 Letter from the Editor times. Still observed is a Marc Peter Keane explains Japanese garden also became of interior and exterior. The deep-seated cultural tradi- how the Sakuteiki’s prescrip- an instrument of propagan- preeminent Wright scholar tion of plum-blossom view- tions regarding the setting of da in the hands of the coun- Anthony Alofsin maintains ing, which takes place at stones, together with the try’s imperial rulers at a in his essay that Wright was his issue of During the Heian period winter’s end. Paula Deitz Zen approach to garden succession of nineteenth- inspired as much by gardens Site/Lines focuses (794–1185), still inspired by writes about this third friend design absorbed during his and twentieth-century as by architecture during his on the aesthetics Chinese models, gardens of winter in her narrative of long residency in Japan, world’s fairs. And despite the 1905 trip to Japan. The pho- of the Japanese were larger than they would a recent trip to Japan, taken have influenced his own West’s opposition to a mili- tographs that Wright took on garden and its later become. They con- for the sole purpose of work. Keane’s essay is com- tant Japan during the first that trip, which Alofsin earli- Tinfluence in the West. Its ori- tained lakes with islands participating in this annual plemented by a profile of half of the twentieth century, er published as a book (Frank gins lie in the Chinese gar- consisting of arrangements ritual. Stephen Morrell, also a gar- the popularity of the Japan- Lloyd Wright’s Fifty Views of den, which was imported of rocks, some intended to By the Muromachi period den designer and Zen practi- ese garden abroad did Japan: The 1905 Photo Album), into the country in conjunc- suggest the form of a sym- (1333–1573), with the rise of tioner, who is the director of not wane. Today there are demonstrate that Wright tion with Buddhism in 552. It bolically meaningful tortoise the Zen sect of Buddhism, the John P. Humes Japanese an estimated 250 public did not focus on the temple is not surprising, however, or crane. Pavilions in the gardens became austere but Stroll Garden on the north Japanese gardens in at least structures in the famous that an indigenous garden style known as shinden-zukuri compelling compositions shore of Long Island and the 53 countries. monastery gardens of Kyoto tradition quite different stood at the edge of the within small enclosed spaces guiding spirit behind its The Japanese garden did independently of their rela- from that of China evolved water and served as viewing whose visual sphere was ongoing creation and main- not merely spawn replica- tionship to the designed on this small, well-watered platforms. In the eleventh sometimes enlarged with tenance. tions of its basic vocabulary landscapes around them. island, a country whose size, century, the principles outside vistas of “borrowed The Japanese garden con- of forms; it inspired modern To broaden our under- climate, and topography of Japanese garden design scenery” (shakkei). The main tinued to flourish during the architects in ways that rein- standing of the importance differ so greatly from those became codified in an function of Zen monastic Edo period (1603–1868) as a forced their radical break of the Japanese garden as a of its mainland neighbor. important manual of garden gardens was to foster medi- deeply traditional yet contin- from Beaux-Arts neoclassi- cultural expression in its Besides its debt to rules known as the Sakuteiki. tation, and the art of setting ually innovative art form. cism, use of ornament, and own right and also as an Buddhist philosophy, the In an essay here on this of stones was a primary But the impetus for change dependence on an eclectic influence on designers in the Japanese garden owes some- important treatise, Natsumi design consideration. The from within diminished mélange of various European West, the Foundation for thing to its ancient roots in Nonaka, an architectural his- choice and placement of after the appearance of styles. While European Landscape Studies is offering the native, nature-oriented torian specializing in land- stones were also important American naval commander modernists for the most part a study tour entitled “In the religion of Shintoism, which scape subjects, explains that in the creation of the “dewy Commodore Perry in Tokyo sought new forms of expres- Footsteps of Frank Lloyd ascribes sanctity to certain the art of setting stones is path” (roji) in the tea garden Bay in 1853. Understandably, sion through machine Wright: The Gardens of objects such as boulders, the primary step in making a where the ritualized tea cere- as Japan opened its borders technology, they were never- Japan” in spring 2009. Prior often framed by a torii, or Japanese garden, as they are mony (cha no yu) formulated to the outside world, it felt theless influenced to a to that, the California State gate, to mark them as a des- the basic architectural ele- by Sen no Rikyu (1521–1591) with increasing intensity the degree by the minimalist University, Long Beach, is tination for pilgrims. The ments in creating its ponds, was conducted in a small influence of Western culture. elegance of Japanese archi- hosting an international influence of this indigenous islands, and waterfalls. structure of elegantly rustic As a corollary, the West tecture. In the United States, conference on Japanese gar- spiritual tradition, combined Although its structure is simplicity. The tea ceremony, appreciated what it perceived Frank Lloyd Wright forged a dens outside Japan from with the tenets of Buddhism derived principally from the which is carried over to as Oriental exoticism, and distinctly American form of March 26 to 29, 2009. Our and a deep appreciation of composition of rocks and the present day, is meant to the replication of Japanese- modernism influenced by readers will find more infor- the country’s scenic beauty, the setting of stones, the induce a mood of wabi: garden style became a wide- Japanese craft traditions. His mation on these events in accounts for the use of nat- Japanese garden is not with- appreciation of the beauty spread vogue that continues vision incorporated respect this issue. ural objects as primary mate- out flowers. Azaleas, beauti- inherent in the craftsman- to the present. “Style” is the for materials, underlying rials in the construction of fully clipped to form flowing ship of humble spaces and appropriate word inasmuch restraint, asymmetrical com- Good green wishes, Japanese gardens. mounds, are admired by articles of everyday use. as the landscape idiom that position, consideration of visitors today, and the sym- In another essay, the land- was being purveyed by the spatial flow, and integration bolical presence in gardens scape architect and writer Japanese was now a national of “the three friends of cultural product. As Kendall winter” – pine, bamboo, and Brown points out, the Elizabeth Barlow Rogers On the Cover: plum – dates from Heian Editor Hibiya Park, Tokyo, Japan. 2 The Long Life of ing a poem for the emperor as he shuffles back to court trayed in art with both full five-petaled blossoms and tight through drifts of snow. An irresistible image: plum blossoms buds at the end of each twig. This iconography establishes an the Japanese Garden in snow. I flew to Japan on February 10 and found a country air of expectation, of future potential – the same sensation I celebrating plum blossoms in every aspect of daily life. felt later standing in groves of plums. Even on a small ceramic Plum Blossoms: The Third Friend of Winter I began my pilgrimage at the Hatakeyama Memorial incense burner on view by Ogata Kenzan (Ogata Korin’s broth- s one who marks the seasons with rituals of her Museum of Fine Art in Tokyo, founded in 1964 by Issey er), the decoration of a heavy twisted branch combines full own, I have long been drawn to Japan, where the Hatakeyama, who collected unusual tea ceremony utensils and white blossoms with buds. As is customary, the visit to the entire culture is attentive to nature and its cyclical related art objects with sea- museum concluded with bowls of green tea adornments. With the same pleasure and regret for sonal themes that are dis- whipped to a froth and sweets in the shape of the ephemerality of cherry blossoms and the scarlet played at appropriate times. plum blossoms. Each guest held a different bowl Ahues of autumnal maples, I have cherished the experience of In the winter exhibition, fea- with individual characteristics worth studying. walking the paths of temple and shrine gardens with hun- turing plum blossoms and Little preparation for this voyage was dreds of others, making a pilgrimage through time. In 1999, camellias, the vigor and required. My friends in Japan embraced my while visiting Kamakura in May, the season of clipped azaleas, beauty of the three friends of quest, taking me to view plum blossoms in sever- I first discovered the temple Hokai-ji and its spectacular allée winter traditionally depicted al regions and milieu.

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