BOOK REVIEWS

A Japanese Touch for your Garden. Kiyoshi Seike, Masanobu Kudo and David H. Engel. 80 pp., 132 colour photos, many line drawings. Kodansha International, Tokyo, New York and London. 1991. ISBN 4- 7700-1661-1. Paperback L11.95, US$14.95.

The emergence of gardening as now practised in Japan dates back to the sixth century when ideas on design were introduced from China. Great emphasis was laid on e.g. the placing of rocks and plants to suggest the landscape beyond the garden, from which features were often ‘borrowed’. Indeed, a traditional Japanese garden is a representation and symbol of nature. Japanese gardens make use of stones, sand (often carefully raked into patterns) and gravel, as well as strategically positioned objects such as stepping stones, a stone lantern or a water basin. Gaudy massed flower plantings are absent: rather there is an emphasis on greenery, in the form of evergreen trees and shrubs (often pruned and clipped to maintain a desired shape), bamboos, ferns and moss. Flowering plants are allowed, but only sparingly, and always carefully placed. Any object which is superfluous to the overall effect is removed.

This book provides an introduction to the design and construction of Japanese gardens. It is based on Sakutei no Jiten (Encylopedia of garden making) published inJapanese in 1978. There are chapters on courtyard, stone, and tree and water gardens followed by instructions on the selection, layout and placing of the various elements which will make up the whole, such as rocks, sand, bridges and fences. Suggestions for suitable plants, and instructions for tree-pruning and fence-making are found at the end of the book.

The text is lucid and well-presented and there are lots of useful drawings and plans. I t is not surprising to hear that the hardback edition, published in 1981 , sold over 110,000 copies. The photographs will be an inspiration to anyone wishing to create an entire garden or merely to add ‘a Japanese touch’.

Victoria Matthews

SHORT REVIEWS Victoria Matthews

Shrubs Through the Seasons. Roy Lancaster. 176 pp., many colour photographs. HarperCollins, London. 1991. ISBN 000-412621-1. E16.99.

Roy Lancaster has selected over 200 shrubs, both familiar and unusual, which he recommends. They are arranged according to their season of greatest interest and are described with all the enthusiasm we have come to expect of the author. In addition to facts on hardiness, soil preference and light requirements, he provides information on the derivation and

149 0 Bmtham-Moxon Trust 1993. Published by Blackwell Publishers, IOA Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 IJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 021 42, USA.