Christian Tschumi, Markuz Wernli Saito Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2005. Paperback, 128 pages.
Mirei Shigemori - Modernizing The Japanese Garden
Reviewed by William Will
“A garden that will stand the test of scrutiny is not just one whose material qualities will endure. Instead it is a garden that, even as people’s outlooks change over time, is suffused with permanent beauty.” – from “Niwa to Watashi”
In this book about the late Mirei Shigemori (1896-1975), landscape architect Christian Tschumi describes a selection of Shigemori’s most influential gardens. Complemented by numerous photos from photographer Markuz Wernli this is the first monograph to present Shigemori’s gardens to a wider audience outside his native country, presenting his vision of how to develop – and hence preserve – the art of the Japanese garden beyond the 20th century.
Mirei Shigemori is increasingly being rediscovered for his contemporary garden designs in Japan. Believing the garden had fallen into cliche, he was a passionate advocat for renewal and worked to evolve the old dry landscape garden type, karesansui. Both an ikebana artist and a practitioner of the tea ceremony, the Kyoto scholar and landscape architect developed an approach to the Japanese garden that was informed by his practice of painting and by his scholarship as a historian.
This book explores 10 major Shigemori works in chronological order – from the checkerboard garden of Tofukuji (1939) and the “Hidden Christian” dry landscape at Zuiho-in (1961) to the masterful stone settings at Matsuo Taisha (1975). Each garden is documented with a set of photographs, a schematic plan and and detailed information about its name, location and when to visit.
