Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Tagsold, Christian, author

Title Spaces in translation : Japanese gardens and the West / Christian Tagsold
Published Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017]
©2017

Copies

Description 1 online resource : illustrations, maps
Series Penn studies in landscape architecture
Penn studies in landscape architecture.
Contents Cover -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. From China to Japan: The History of Asian Spaces -- Chapter 2. Discourses of Spaces -- Chapter 3. Spreading the Japanese Garden Worldwide -- Chapter 4. Between Essence and Invention -- Chapter 5. Zen and the Art of Gardens -- Chapter 6. Elements of the Japanese Garden -- Chapter 7. Authoritarian Gardens -- Chapter 8. Connecting Spaces, Disconnecting Spaces -- Chapter 9. Postmodernizing Japanese Gardens -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary One may visit famous gardens in Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka--or one may visit Japanese-styled gardens in New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Berlin, London, Paris, São Paulo, or Singapore. We often view these gardens as representative of the essence of Japanese culture. Christian Tagsold argues, however, that the idea of the Japanese garden has less do to with Japan's history and traditions, and more to do with its interactions with the West. The first Japanese gardens in the West appeared at the world's fairs in Vienna in 1873 and Philadelphia in 1876 and others soon appeared in museums, garden expositions, the estates of the wealthy, and public parks. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Japanese garden, described as mystical and attuned to nature, had usurped the popularity of the Chinese garden, so prevalent in the eighteenth century. While Japan sponsored the creation of some gardens in a series of acts of cultural diplomacy, the Japanese style was interpreted and promulgated by Europeans and Americans as well. But the fashion for Japanese gardens would decline in inverse relation to the rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s, their rehabilitation coming in the years following World War II, with the rise of the Zen meditation garden style that has come to dominate the Japanese garden in the West. Tagsold has visited over eighty gardens in ten countries with an eye to questioning how these places signify Japan in non-Japanese geographical and cultural contexts. He ponders their history, the reasons for their popularity, and their connections to geopolitical events, explores their shifting aesthetic, and analyzes those elements which convince visitors that these gardens are "authentic." He concludes that a constant process of cultural translation between Japanese and Western experts and commentators marked these spaces as expressions of otherness, creating an idea of the Orient and its distinction from the West.--Publisher website
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references
Notes Online resource; title from pdf information screen (Proquest, viewed November 5, 2020)
Subject Gardens, Japanese -- Europe -- History -- 20th century
Gardens, Japanese -- North America -- History -- 20th century
Gardens, Japanese -- Design -- Philosophy
ARCHITECTURE -- Landscape.
GARDENING -- Garden Design.
GARDENING -- Landscape.
Gardens, Japanese
Europe
North America
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780812294330
0812294335