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Concludes with a detailed look at the beautiful Upper Garden at Saihoji, built by Soseki in 1339. This book examines the design style of the medieval Japanese Zen monk Musô Soseki (1275-1351), who built gardens as places to meditate and to escape his busy public life. A Zen Life in Nature begins with a discussion of Soseki’s rural upbringing and the spiritual background to it, his quest for enlightenment as a Zen monk and his role as mediator in the turbulent times that surrounded the Kemmu Restoration and the establishment of the Ashikaga shogunate. Other chapters look at the spiritual and cultural influences that are crucial to understanding Soseki’s aesthetic and design sense and the development of his garden building. Finally, the book provides a detailed look at the beautiful Upper Garden at Saihoji, built by Soseki in 1339. The author Andrew Keir Davidson, a landscape gardener for many years, has published three previous books on the planning and construction of gardens and on Zen gardening: Simple Garden Construction (1980, with Daniel Roberts), Zen Gardening (1982), and Garden Planning and Construction (1983, with Daniel Roberts). Published by Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan |
