Mirei Shigemori (1896–1975), a historian trained in painting and flower arranging, is increasingly admired for his contemporary Japanese garden designs. Believing that the Japanese dry landscape garden (or Zen garden) had fallen into cliché, Shigemori applied modernist shapes, colors, and materials to create stunning avant-garde works that also celebrated the ancient gods and rituals at the heart of Japanese culture. This book explores ten major Shigemori works—from the checker-board garden of Tofukuji (1939) and the “Hidden Christian” dry landscape at Zuiho-in (1961) to the masterful stone settings at Matsuo Taisha (1975)—using design/cultural analysis, garden plans, and photographs.
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AUTHOR
Christian Tschumi is a landscape architect with degrees from Harvard and Kyoto. He has written numerous articles on Japanese gardens and won awards, including the Ikea Award 1996 for landscape design and the Monbusho Grant 2000 from the Japanese Ministry of Education.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Markuz Wernli is Editorial Designer & Photographer for Kyoto Journal and has won awards for his contributions to Kyoto Visitors Guide, X-FUNS Design Magazine, and HOW Design Magazine.
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"The dictionary says that 'to renew' means to 'restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection' and it is that sense of the word that applies to Mirei Shigemori's efforts. He introduced new materials like concrete and used them in completely new ways. He formed winding lines that depicted waves or clouds. He also brought in color that he mixed into the concrete or used to produce different colors of gravel for garden's surfaces. It is both these new shapes and their colors that make Shigemori's gardens modern, at least when compared to their Japanese predecessors. But by also incorporating past traditions and elements, Shigemori remained close to the roots of his trade. He, like gardeners of old, continued to set stones, but he slightly twisted the technique and its related references. He kept using sand, but introduced new colors and raked the planes in different patterns. Hence in Shigemori's gardens the modern element works so successfully because it remains in a traditional context, without obscuring the past tradition."
from the Introduction
 
Yurin no Niwa, (1969) 2002
Originally designed for the building of the Association of Kimono Manufacturers in Kyoto, the layout of the garden refers to a local kimono famous for its colorful noshi bundle design, Noshi are auspicious strips of dried fish or seaweed that are tied in a cluster as a symbol of good luck and unlimited happiness. The garden was saved from destruction and recently rebuilt in Mirei Shigemori's hometown.
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