Japanese Garden Notes: A Visual Guide to Elements and Design

This is a beautifully put together book with high-quality glossy paper, beautiful full-color photographs and interesting information provided by an expert. This is the best book I have on the subject. Buy without hesitation if you love Japanese gardens!

Love this book! Very beautiful scenes from Japanese gardens with explanations about Japanese traditions and attitudes. Helps you understand and appreciate the origins of a lot of common elements in Japanese gardens. It’s very inspirational and a joy to peruse. I have enjoyed it so much that I bought a second book as a gift.

I am at the very beginning stages of starting to design a garden in the Japanese style at our desert home. There is so much to understand and it was beginning to feel overwhelming. Remarkably, I came upon this book and the description and other reviews made me think it would be useful. I don't think I could have picked a better book to help me understand the different concepts to consider. Every page has beautiful pictures and short descriptions of the focal point and the particular concept of Japanese garden design. Even the table of contents is jam-packed with useful information. If you want eye candy and a fantastic way to learn the design concepts, this is a great book for that.

I purchased this book several months ago and am reading it in bits and pieces. It is that kind of book - a wonderful immersion into the myriad elements of a Japanese garden, which unfolds through a series of intimate observations and meditations. It is not an explicit instruction manual, but it may well turn out to be the finest introduction to the design and creation of a Japan-inspired garden that you will ever read. The photographs and words blend seamlessly throughout and in their sum provide both beauty and understanding. What more could one ask from a book?

MPK's masterful book inspires tranquility and awe, such as his description of pine needles: "gesturing like the poised fingers of a dancer." Photographed with precision and elegance and accompanied by the author's Zen-like prose, every page is balanced with equal measure of scholarly rigor and poetic grace.

I lived in Kyoto for 20 years and studied the famous gardens while there. I found Marc Keane's book a treasury of all the philosophy behind the gardens' creation, and the wonderful details that make them magical. It's a fine learning tool as well as a reference for those who already know about Japanese gardens. Books on Japanese culture can often get burdensome in their history and detail, but this is very pleasant to read through, visually delightful, and full of information yet light at the same time. Kudos to the author/designer. I'm using it now as a reference to create a Japanese garden in the B.C. Rocky Mountains, and grateful for it.

Having spent time in Japan every year since 1994 (my wife and I both serious about gardens) find this compact volume to incorporate all the best of our memories in photos we WISHED we had taken...or at least have been present each time Mr. Keane seems to have magically arrived in the perfect light for each location. The poetic descriptions capture, not only important details, but the spirit of each garden view rendering an indelible after image to carry with us to our every creative endeavor!

ripped cover and inside of cover is pulling off binding

素晴らしい本です！ 単に見て美しいだけではなく、普通の日本人が知らない知識が満載で、とても勉強になります。 これから日本庭園などを訪れるときに、見る視点が変わりそうです。 これは英語でこう表現するのかという発見も楽しいです。

Beautifully designed book with excellent print quality. It was a gift, and recipient was delighted

If you design gardens then this is a must have, the design details are breath taking. I am a designer M.S.G.D and I wish this book had been published years ago , what inspiration. Mr Keane is someone who seriously knows Japanese garden design, not someone with little knowledge cashing in on a trend. I dont usually do reviews but this book is superb, shame it wasn't a larger format tho

A rich resource for ideas to incorporate in a Japanese garden, rather than a direct “how-to” book.

A beautiful book, well illustrated and well laid out. Recommended.