While museums across North America are replicating "Zen rock
gardens" in their courtyards and miniature versions now decorate
offices, these Zen gardens remain enigmatic, their philosophical
and aesthetic significance obscured. French historian Francois
Berthier traces the history of the karesansui garden in Reading Zen
in the Rocks, here translated by Graham Parkes and beautifully
illustrated with photographs of all the major gardens discussed.
Berthier traces the roles of Shinto and Zen Buddhism in the
evolution of the garden and also considers how manual laborers from
the lowest classes in Japan had a hand in creating some of its
highest examples. Parkes contributes an equally original and
substantive essay, which delves into the philosophical importance
of rocks and their "language of stone," delineating the difference
between Chinese and Japanese rock gardens and their relationship to
Buddhism. Together, the two essays compose one of the most
comprehensive and elegantly written studies of this haunting garden
form. Reading Zen in the Rocks is a handsome addition to the
library of anyone interested in gardening, Eastern philosophy, and
the combination of the two that the karesansui so superbly
represents.
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