Pocket Gardens: Contemporary Japanese Miniature Designs

Called tsubo-niwa after a unit of measurement that is two person-sized tatami mats placed side by side, the pocket garden has been a part of the Japanese architectural canon for thousands of years. Undergoing a modernization in the last few decades in which a new generation of architects began experimenting with the concept in imaginative ways, the contemporary garden follows a distinct yet global aesthetic, whether as an urban solution to importing nature, as an individual theme set within a larger garden space, or as a buffer between property lines of a house or apartment. Beautifully illustrated and designed with a reflective, contemplative aesthetic, the book offers a broad array of miniature garden designs, including Keno Kuma`s explorations of materials as diverse as andesite and plastic, Takeshi Nagasaki`s art installation gardens with stepping stones of cast glass and bronze, and Yasuhiro Harada`s mobile cube gardens--plantings in stainless-steel trays on wheels that can be stacked and rearranged at will.