We Americans like to put our own stamp on things.\u00a0 Most Chinese food served in the U.S. would be unrecognizable to a person newly arrived from China.\u00a0 The same is true of a good many \u201cEnglish teas\u201d I have enjoyed over the years.\u00a0 The food may be delicious, but the comestibles and the experience are English-style rather than truly English.\u00a0 This is probably as it should be.\u00a0 Cultural traditions are integral to specific places and times and there is something about most of them that is hard to translate completely to other places and times.\u00a0 The best we can do is pay respectful homage to a particular art or discipline and the culture that gave rise to it.<\/p>\n
For over one hundred years, Americans have been fascinated by Japanese-style gardens.\u00a0 We have a number of them in this country on pubic lands as well private property.\u00a0 The gardens\u2019 popularity has waxed and waned over time, but many of them have endured.\u00a0 Kendall H. Brown\u2019s book, Quiet Beauty \u2013 The Japanese Gardens of North America, <\/i>profiles twenty-six Japanese gardens located throughout the United States and Canada.\u00a0 Brown separates Japanese garden fact from fiction with the help of lavish illustrations by David M. Cobb.<\/p>\n
Japanese-style gardens are characterized by certain common elements.\u00a0 Water is often prominent, as are bridges.\u00a0 Dry gardens, like the one at the Bloedel Reserve in Bainbridge Island, Washington, are composed of carefully arranged rocks surrounded by meticulously raked gravel.\u00a0 Some gardens use structures like tea houses or observation pavilions as focal points.\u00a0 Japanese-style stone lanterns and statuary adorn winding paths of \u201cstroll gardens.\u201d\u00a0 Certain evergreens, either dwarf varieties or species with sculptural characteristics are used as stand-alone specimens or grouped thoughtfully.\u00a0 Some Japanese-style gardens feature the ornamental cherry trees for which the Japanese have great reverence.\u00a0 Overall the feeling in Japanese-style gardens is contemplative and restful, with elements combined in thoughtful ways to form a harmonious whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We Americans like to put our own stamp on things.\u00a0 Most Chinese food served in the U.S. would be unrecognizable to a person newly arrived from China.\u00a0 The same is true of a good many \u201cEnglish teas\u201d I have enjoyed over the years.\u00a0 The food may be delicious, but the comestibles and the experience are … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[718,721,507,722,717,716,719,720],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-asian-gardens","tag-dry-gardens","tag-gardening-books","tag-green-gardens","tag-japanese-gardens","tag-kendall-h-brown","tag-quiet-beauty","tag-theme-gardens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}