Research Center for Japanese Garden Art and Historical Heritage

About the Center

The Research Center for Japanese Garden Art and Historical Heritage is part of the Graduate School of the Kyoto University of Art and Design.

The aim of the Japanese Garden section of the Center is to integrate various research regarding the Japanese garden: ecology, history, design, aesthetics, archeology, and traditional gardening techniques.

The Center actively works together with various universities in the academic fields of garden history, ecology, and design; it is in close contact with traditional gardening firms; and gives advice to authorities that maintain historic garden sites in and outside of Japan.

For the students of the Graduate School, the Center acts as a place to gain experience in one of the many aspects of the field; for professors and professionals, the Center is a place where theory and field work meet.

Organization

The core staff of the Center is drawn from teachers from the departments of Landscape Architecture, Environmental Design, and Preservation Sciences. This group is supported by researchers in the fields of archeology, architecture, and cultural history, as well as many professionals in the field of gardening who are residents in Kyoto. The core staff of the Center, and their specializations, includes:

• Director:

Hiromasa AMASAKI, Landscape design, Japanese garden history, garden stonework, garden surveys

• Vice Director:

Toshinori NAKAMURA, History of Japanese Architecture

• Chair of Japanese Garden Art Research Department:

Takahiro NAKA, Japanese garden history, surveys and restoration of historical gardens

• Chief Researchers:

Wybe KUITERT, Landscape design, cultural history of gardening, urban landscape systems; Haruyoshi SOWA, Landscape design, soundscape; Takayuki KATAISHI, Garden construction; Sumiko UDO, Landscape design, landscape use of urban rivers;

• Researchers:

Yoji SASAKI, Landscape Architecture; Takehiko TAKANASHI, Forest aesthetics; Ken KAWAI, Landscape design; Yasushi SHIMOMURA, Environmental design; Atsuko NAKAI, Landscape design; Fumie OGINO, Environmental planting; Yukari MUTO, Modern ceramic history;

• Chief Advisor:

Makoto NAKAMURA, Gardening principles and design

• Guest Researchers:

Marc Peter KEANE, Garden design; Masao KIFUNE, Garden construction; Isao YAMANAKA, Garden construction; Yukari IHARA, Environmental design; Ryuji YOSHIMURA, Landscape design; Hanako INOUE, Theory of garden construction; Kaori MACHIDA, Cultural history of Japanese gardens; Yumiko TERADA, Landscape design, horticultural therapy; Kazuhiro KOMAI, Garden construction; Takahide TOKUMURA, Garden construction

• Research Associates:

Zentaro YAGASAKI, Architecture; Hisao SUZUKI, Garden archeology; Yoshiaki MAEDA, Garden archeology; Tokushiro TAMANE, Garden construction and maintenance; Kinzo NISHIMURA, Stone garden ornaments; Masataka KIMURA, Tree surgeon, arborist; Yutaka SUGANUMA, Garden history

Location

The Graduate School and the Center are located on the campus of the Kyoto University of Art and Design. Kyoto has been the site of numerous developments in the art of gardening, since the 8th century AD, when the city was first developed as an Imperial capital.

Even to this day, Kyoto holds a vast wealth in terms of the many gardens, large and small, that can be found within its borders, integrating the beauty of the natural world into urban culture.

As such, the Center is within close reach of many of Japan's historically significant and most famous gardens.

Research Objectives

Japanese gardens originated from a profound relationship between people and nature, and have developed through the ages as culture expressing this relation. Poetry, music, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, painting, and other arts have found a stage for expression in the Japanese garden. Research therefore intends to be multidisciplinary and includes the fields of: history, religion, art and cultural studies, ecology, forestry, and landscape architecture.

The Center was founded in 1995 to provide a facility and means for the study of the Japanese garden in order to contribute to the creation and development of gardening culture, and for the betterment of society in general. The Intensive Seminar was set up in 1996 by Nakamura Makoto, Wybe Kuitert, and Marc Keane to provide an international, English language forum for research and education on Japanese gardens.