While the international presence of the Japanese garden bears witness to the dissemination of models in landscape architecture, it also raises the question of the diversity of its territorial ...variations. This article looks at the forms taken by this characteristic style of garden in a Mediterranean context. The harshness of the Mediterranean climate makes it difficult to simply copy Japanese garden designs. The question then is whether the Japanese garden is a global model capable of being hybridised with other cultural elements and garden arts. The recently created Japanese garden in Aix-en-Provence, inaugurated in 2021, is the fruit of the influences of Japanese design and the Mediterranean context while combining French and Japanese gardening knowledge and know-how. It would appear to be a good case study to investigate this question. The aim of this article is to analyse the forms of hybridisation that this garden embodies from three perspectives: its design, its spatial composition and the way it is received by its users.
The number of studies on green spaces’ cooling effects has significantly increased in recent years, driven by the rising occurrence and severity of heat waves. Nevertheless, our current understanding ...of optimal green space designs for mitigating heat stress remains limited. This study delves into the historic Japanese dry gardens to examine the design strategies employed by ancient Japanese people in addressing hot and humid climates while crafting a thermally comfortable environment for garden visitors. We selectively investigated the thermal condition and spatial design of four compact dry gardens (<1500 m2) in Kyoto, Japan as we aimed to propose design strategies for small urban green spaces which are the major urban green spaces in Japan. The results indicated that the thermal condition in all the resting areas of the gardens was dramatically ameliorated to a “warm” condition when nearby open areas were “extremely hot.” This enhancement was achieved through the provision of extensive shade, primarily in the form of roofs, covering approximately 80% and 70% of the areas within 5 and 10 m radii around the resting areas, respectively. Nonetheless, we observed spatial heterogeneity in thermal conditions among the resting areas, which were influenced by the varying degrees of greenery cover within a 20 m radius. This study demonstrates that Japanese dry gardens were designed climate accordingly and can effectively reduce summer heat stress. It highlights the value of historic gardens as urban green spaces providing regulating ecosystem services and as a strategic design reference for guiding climate-adaptive green space designs.
Italo Calvino travelled to Japan in 1976 and, throughout his career, became increasingly acquainted with Japanese literature and Buddhist philosophy. This encounter is evidenced by the 'Japanese ...shelves' of his Roman library and by several authorial reflections, which this article scrutinises in order to highlight the material-ecocritical relevance of Calvino's contact with Japanese nature and culture. In particular, this analysis interprets Japanese gardens as spaces where Calvino rethinks his sense of the human and more-than-human by establishing their mutually constitutive relations. Augustin Berque's concept of 'trajectivity', according to which dualisms are constantly transcended in Japanese milieux, guides this exploration of how Calvino's Japanese reflections in Collezione di sabbia articulate his dialectical challenge to logocentrism in 'The Written World and the Unwritten World', to gendered dichotomies in the Japanese chapter of Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore, and to traditional humanism in Palomar.
This research aims to reveal the workings of hybrid systems with ornamental garden ponds and functional water systems in historical Japanese garden cities through researching old maps, documents, and ...measuring canals and garden ponds in three old cities (Edo/ Tokyo, Kanra-Gunma, and Kojirokuji-Nagasaki). As a result, the following things became clear: (1) If more than 50% of canals run through private land, canals are complicatedly divided to reduce quantitative (flood and drought) and qualitative (pollution) risk; (2) Lords of these cities lived at the termination points of the systems to control the water quality of the entire water networks; (3) In most cases, canals are not directly connected to garden ponds. In the few cases in which garden ponds have the functionality to control amounts of water downstream or upstream, garden ponds are directly connected; (4) Garden design variety becomes richer in accordance with the topographical situation; (5) In gardens, canals are divided into different uses; ornamental use and practical use for daily life.
This research aims to reveal the workings of hybrid systems with ornamental garden ponds and functional water systems in historical Japanese garden cities through researching old maps, documents, and ...measuring canals and garden ponds in three old cities (Edo/ Tokyo, Kanra-Gunma, and Kojirokuji-Nagasaki). As a result, the following things became clear: (1) If more than 50% of canals run through private land, canals are complicatedly divided to reduce quantitative (flood and drought) and qualitative (pollution) risk; (2) Lords of these cities lived at the termination points of the systems to control the water quality of the entire water networks; (3) In most cases, canals are not directly connected to garden ponds. In the few cases in which garden ponds have the functionality to control amounts of water downstream or upstream, garden ponds are directly connected; (4) Garden design variety becomes richer in accordance with the topographical situation; (5) In gardens, canals are divided into different uses; ornamental use and practical use for daily life.
This research aims to reveal the workings of hybrid systems with ornamental garden ponds and functional water systems in historical Japanese garden cities through researching old maps, documents, and ...measuring canals and garden ponds in three old cities (Edo/ Tokyo, Kanra-Gunma, and Kojirokuji-Nagasaki). As a result, the following things became clear: (1) If more than 50% of canals run through private land, canals are complicatedly divided to reduce quantitative (flood and drought) and qualitative (pollution) risk; (2) Lords of these cities lived at the termination points of the systems to control the water quality of the entire water networks; (3) In most cases, canals are not directly connected to garden ponds. In the few cases in which garden ponds have the functionality to control amounts of water downstream or upstream, garden ponds are directly connected; (4) Garden design variety becomes richer in accordance with the topographical situation; (5) In gardens, canals are divided into different uses; ornamental use and practical use for daily life.
Landscape architecture and urban design disciplines could benefit from soundscape thinking in order to enhance experiential qualities in their projects, though the available tools are not yet fully ...developed nor tested. The present research aims to substantiate one of the available tools, Soundscape Actions, and thereby increase the understanding of soundscape design. The study focuses on the Japanese garden tradition, which is known for high preference ratings, tranquil qualities and consideration for sound and other sensory experiences. An autoethnographic approach was used to conduct field studies in 88 gardens in Japan, the majority of which are located in urban areas with potential noise disturbance. The studies are based on observations in situ, supported by video documentation, field recordings and readings of sound pressure levels (SPL). A total of 19 Soundscape Actions are described and discussed in the paper. They are structured around three main categories: localisation of functions, reduction of unwanted sounds and introduction of wanted sounds. The study provides concrete examples of how the tool can be used to enhance tranquil qualities, particularly focusing on small green spaces in dense urban settings, involving the (simultaneous) reduction of unwanted sounds and enhancement of wanted sounds/effects. The autoethnographic approach allowed for the phenomenological perspective to be brought forward, which contributed new insights regarding the design tool. The findings are discussed in relation to health and soundscape research, focusing on multisensory experiences, masking strategies and potentials for implementation and future developments of the design tool.
This essay examines the circulation of Japanese culture through European intellectual networks since the opening of the archipelago to the Western world in 1853. We argue firstly that the ...archipelago's self-imposed political distance from the Asian continent is one of the reasons for the crystallization of Japanese specificities and secondly that geographical distance enhances the impact of these specificities on the creativity of European architects. Twentieth-century Western interest focuses among other things on Shinto-the path of the gods-and naturality in the arts. We show how these specificities caught the attention of Dimitris Pikionis (1887-1968). We look at Pikionis's use of wood in the layout of the church of St Demetrius Loumbardiaris and stone in the archaeological site around the Acropolis in Athens from 1954 to 1958 by comparing descriptions of Japanese garden pavilions and paths in documents that were at his disposal. Our findings are grounded on the analysis of Pikionis's own books, magazines, notes and drawings related to Japan and on his collaboration with his daughter Agni Pikióni.
The article reviews the book by Alexander Mescheryakov “Japan. Chasing the Wind of centuries” (Moscow: Lingvistika, 2022, 512 p. ISBN 978-5-91922-098-5). The monograph is a collection of the author’s ...recent articles. The range of topics and the chronological coverage are extraordinarily wide, with many phenomena of Japanese history and culture considered throughout centuries and portrayed in enormous diversity and variability. At the same time, the fates of individual people are not lost in the context of large-scale historical and cultural changes, and the author carefully brings us their voices. This makes the book a real journey in time.
Muköjima-Hyakkaen was first established in the early years of the nineteenth century by a wealthy antiques dealer who, with the help of several prominent artists of the period, built a garden where ...writers could surround themselves with blooming flowers and trees at any time of the year. Soon after stepping inside the walls, the sounds of cars and conversations from the surrounding neighborhood fade and disappear, replaced by the soft chirping of birds, swishing of leaves, and plunking of water droplets falling from the tips of tree branches and tiled roofs onto the soft dirt paths below. Once beyond the traditional thatched bamboo gate, the trail splits and meanders past overhanging trees whose branches twist and end in flowering buds.
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