Gardens of Awakening: A Guide to the Aesthetics, History, and Spirituality of Kyoto’s Zen Landscapes

Renowned artist Kaz Tanahashi reveals the deep, inner spiritual connections that Zen gardens can foster, with over 75 stunning full-color photos of the masterpiece gardens of Kyōto, Japan.

Imagine yourself in Kyōto, Japan, gazing at an ancient temple garden. How would you contextualize what you are seeing? What is the history of this centuries-old contemplative art form of Zen gardening? What are its symbols and concepts?

Richly illustrated with full-color photographs, Gardens of Awakening guides you through a series of Zen temple gardens, most of which were created from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Some are teeming with plants and flowing water, while others have only rocks and sand. All share in the Zen aesthetics of awakening.

Through essays and commentary on Mitsue Nagase’s striking photographs, beloved Zen artist and translator Kazuaki Tanahashi presents the gardens in terms of seven qualities that arise from Zen practice: direct, ordinary, vigorous, gleaming, pivotal, nondual, and inexhaustible. Relating these qualities to the development of Zen culture and its influence on Japanese art, Gardens of Awakening invites you deep into the heart of Zen.

KAZUAKI TANAHASHI is an artist and Buddhist scholar active in the United States, originally from Japan. He has visited Zen gardens in Kyōto almost every year for the past three decades. His many publications include Penetrating Laughter: Hakuin’s Zen and Art, and Sky Above, Great Wind: Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan.

MITSUE NAGASE is a photographer, dividing her time between her native Japan, Germany, and the U.S. Her photography is based on her studies in Zen Buddhism and of Miksang, a contemplative approach to photography as a spiritual practice, which she also teaches. For further information about her work and activities check: www.mitsuenagase.com.