Japanese vs Western gardens reveal opposite philosophies about beauty, nature, and life itself. What I discovered went far deeper than design—it changed how I see myself. Join me in Kyoto as I explore what these gardens teach us about being human.
📘 Digital Journal – Japan & South of France Edition
Be the first to know when it launches:
🔗 https://satomitakayama.com/newsletter/
🌿 About This Channel
Hello, I’m Satomi Takayama, a Japanese artist based between London and Japan.
In an age of overwhelming information, I’m searching for what feels truly essential and real—places with cultural depth, craftsmanship shaped by human hands and the philosophies that stand the test of time.
On this channel, I share the sources of inspiration for my future creations: the stories and “whys” behind art, craftsmanship, and design that are slowly shaping my own work and the spaces I hope to create. With a background in business and art-business studies, I offer a slightly different, unframed perspective as a Japanese artist.
My videos flow through three strands:
1. Japanese Aesthetics & Philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykgOAPpY4JkdGI7S5ddchngm
2. Travel Through an Artist’s Eye: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykjAK3EyxE7OSYcmQub0EI0N
3. Creative Insights & Personal Reflections: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP7zeIa4ykiSGoi5H4uJ-QQH5e133v4W
If you sometimes feel overwhelmed by fast, surface-level content, I hope these slower stories can offer you a small pause—and perhaps a quiet spark of inspiration for your own way of living.
🌐 Website & Artworks
Explore original paintings and prints:
🔗 https://www.satomitakayama.com
📷 Instagram for more visual inspiration
🔗 https://www.instagram.com/satomi.takayama
✉️ Mailing List
Get updates on new works, exhibition news, and behind-the-scenes insights:
🔗 https://satomitakayama.com/newsletter/
Content
The Reason Why Japanese Gardens and Western Gardens Are So Different:
01:46 History
07:18 Design Philosophy
11:03 Climate, Topography, Four Seasons
13:30 Takeaways (Life lesson)
#japanesegarden #philosophy #kyotosightseeing
39 Comments
If my English was hard to catch at any point, feel free to turn on subtitles! And I’d love to know – what garden inspires you the most? Share your favourite one in the comments 😌 Thank you for watching!
ロンドンが恋しいですか？近いうちにまた来ますか？
I found your video to be wonderfully elegant and your English is charming. I love both Japanese and European gardens, but the European not only energize, they beckon interaction, touching the plants, the water, engaging with people throughout. The Japanese gardens are meant to be admired, contemplated, meditated remotely. One shouldn't touch, lest one pebble be out of place. There is a poignant distance from emotion or emoting in general. It is perhaps at the extremes of emotion that we see the limits of cultures and this was portrayed in Yukio Mishima's book Forbidden Colors. It speaks of the interaction between an elderly professor and his student's widow. If you've not read, I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the brilliant analysis for the Japanese garden philosophy
I agree. A garden is more healing then stupid temple
13:41 what a philosophical story
Very good comparison of philosophies❤ behind the culture. I like the video🥰🌸 i would like to see more about japanese philosophies, i liked their approach to nature❤
Thanks for your effort and time in making this video and sharing it. Personally, I enjoy Japanese gardens. It’s well curated, symbolism and calming. Good examples are the ones found in Kyoto such as at Ryoanji temple, Tenryuji temple and Saihoji. Also in Kanazawa, Kenroku-en.
a lot of these gardens that you talk about are not as much "western" but rather Rationalists, a kind of heresy that sees the world as entirely a creation of ideals, it's in the medieval times that you find something different, look for example to a practice like marginalia (the practice of adding chaos at the margins of book pages) and you'll find it completely absent in these "western gardens" or newer churches, gargoyles for example are like that, in old churches you'll find devils carved all over in the corners.
One big influence in the west are the Egyptians, they had a thing for geometry, I've read a little about them and I've found them to be extremely similar to the Japanese, it's quite interesting.
Satomi, this is a wonderful video! I love particularly all your effort on using your own pictures and videos of your experience. That documentation is gold! I also feel original the insights that comes from the comparison of both types of gardens. On the topic of European gardens and their focus on order, there’s a strange outlier in Italy called the Sacro Bosco (Park of the Monsters). It was built during the Renaissance but deliberately rejected the classical order and symmetry you described, filling its paths with grotesque stone monsters instead. It’s a truly bizarre historical anomaly!
Great video.
The Eastern spirituality looks to creation as spirituality coming in to oneself from the external; the spiritual is intrinsically in the created. Whereas the West, at least Christian worldview, creation is separate from the Divine and not elevated to it but is a seen spirituality, an understanding, going out from the observer to the created. One points ‘beyond’ and the other looks ‘within’. Christian man looks to cultivate creation under dominion and stewardship from a higher position whereas the East is part of the whole and of same ‘position’ in the created order.
Your final feeling on both said it well 😁
i am retired now….i can do what i want now…….and sure enoughsome chores… i dont mind
yes, another example of great western garden is on sanssouci palace in potsdam, germany
Beautiful video with wonderful information. Thanks
My parents used to live in the Cathedral Close at Norwich. There were lawns in front of the house with Cherry Blossom Trees that bloomed every Spring. Just grass and blossoms. Areas of the grass are not mown so that the trees can grow undisturbed in the natural environment. Definitely worth a visit if you are visiting the UK again. 🌸✌🏼🇬🇧
自分に必要な場所は、ドキドキワクワクする刺激と、ゆらゆらふわふわする安らぎのあるバランスがとれた場所やね。
Truly resonating' thank you Satomi!
After having lived in London and various countries myself, I have since returned to New Zealand and it has given me the opportunity to reflect with a different outlook directing a more self enquiry approach and perspective amidst the surrounding environment and nature.
Japan has always felt like home also..such a beautiful country!
どうもありがとうございます
Always the same reductive comparisons: Japan versus the West. What is the West anyway? Comparing the seasons in Spain and Sweden, England, and Austria as if these countries had the same climate? You claim to be talking about Japan, but you only discuss the southern half, mainly around Kyoto, always using the same images. You underestimate the influence of China on Japanese gardens; without China, there would be no bonsai. You also underestimate the influence of Arab-Andalusian civilization on the development of gardens in Europe. You say you like both types of gardens as if there were practically only one style of garden in Europe, when 80% of the video shows only the Japanese style. Instead, admit that you're promoting Japanese gardens because you prefer them, and you'd be more honest. It is better to stop comparing Japan against the whole world as if Japan were not part of the world and was a separate planet with a culture more unique than others.
日本庭園というと京の禅寺や大名庭園がイメージされがちですが、東京の下町の人間としては向島百花園ですかね。
武家や公家の趣味が頽廃、堕落しているという批評精神が江戸の文人にはありました。
なんと言っても、日本の春は梅です。桜より先ですから。
❤❤❤❤GOD IS THE GARDENER,,,THE ARCHITECT, THE DESIGNER!!!! JAPAN IS THE GREATEST!!!
自然は、神が作ったルールを基底にバランスよく作られた芸術作品である。故に、神を理解するために模倣する。
西洋は、人間の妄想の産物。
バランスがおかしい。
Interesting information about gardens.
tokyo’s lack of public green spaces continues to baffle me every time i return. the fact that the few that are there charge for access feels distasteful, imagine being charged to go into hyde park or into regent’s park. is access to nature a privilege reserved only those who can afford? 🤔
As a Japanese person living overseas- this made me want to go back to Japan and visit old gardens.
Subscribed 😊
I am very grateful to now have a very personal window into Japanese culture. It’s fascinating how spiritual a garden can be. You’ve also made me appreciate western Gardens in a way I had not previously done. Thank you for your efforts.
Thanks God I find your channel. Finally I find something i'm missing : my childhood's imaginative adventure to the garden, both in European style and Japanese. Yes, my Father was an artist and his books' 'collection is my imaginative universe. Thanks very much!
Very good video
Thank you for your lovely and thought provoking video. There are so many gardens I would love to visit as well as ones I'd like to see again. My favourite Western garden is Butchard Gardens on Vancouver Island. There you can see many styles of gardens. Many gardens in Japan are favourites of mine. From North to South; Sapporo's Odori Park is almost a Western park style being so long and rectangular, and the forest around the main temple in Maruyama Park is awe inspiring! Tsuruoka's Park is beautiful in Spring with Sakura trees lining the castle moat. Korakuen Garden in Okayama and Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu are two Southern gardens I enjoyed. I hope someday I might visit them all again!
I could never express the tension I've felt with respect to these raised topical subjects for the reasons you so beautiful expressed in perfect English Grammar and philosophilcal prose exposition -BRAVA
Wonderful video … culturally and beautiful . Japan is at the top of my bucket list to visit it’s gardens , nature and culture .
Thanks so much ! I’ll be tuning in often 🔮🥰
I am a Christian, Hong Kong born, but grew up in Australia. I like Japanese garden more than the French gardens because I meditate God's goodness in the former.
Your videos are marvelous. TY. I have two Japanese friends who are artists. They sometimes talk about moving from the US back to Japan . But then they remind themselves why they left. Too structured, too many expectations, not enough freedom. Questions for you: Have you encountered this? Is this also your experience in your formative years? Is it why you moved to London? Finally, re your comment about beauty being scarce in our time. I believe it, in fact, is. The lack of design appropriated in modern cities and commerce centers is terribly disappointing. Our values have changed, we are a commerce based world with few important exceptions. I applaud everything you're doing. Finding our way as an artist is an internal process. Your journey is a joy to share.
Thanks for your genuine experiences as an japanese woman bring together gardens from western and from Japan. Love It! ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
〈日本庭園が西洋庭園と大きく異なる秘密の理由〉その答えの1つとしてポイントは『自然との接し方』『キリスト教の影響』があるかもしれない。日本人は縄文からの『生活スタイル』と精神の影響のつながりがあるんでしょう。
I have seen Western gardens and Japanese gardens. While loving symmetry, I prefer Japanese gardens. They ARE more serene and calming.
In the US, we occasionally find wilderness gardens that are much like Japanese gardens. I have sat and meditated in two of the wilderness gardens and meditated for hours. Your video has convinced me that I need to study Buddhism and Zen.
I am a professional gardener of residential properties in Australia. After becoming aware of the Japanese word ‘shokunin’ I set myself the task of travelling to Japan to determine shokunin from a gardeners perspective. Last year in May I visited for a month. I only visited 4 locations with half the time in Kyoto. I learnt so much about my craft as a gardener and myself. I am trying to continue to learn from home and your content is wonderfully helpful 🙏🦋
I’m not trying to be difficult, but we should realize that this 'Japan vs. West' comparison is a very Western way of looking at things. It might actually limit our understanding. When we set up these specific points of comparison, we only see the differences we expect to find.
Actually, both the Western 'Garden' and the Japanese 'Niwa' might share the same dream: a longing for a 'Paradise' or 'Heaven.' Whether it's God's creation or a Zen hermit's world, they both try to create a sacred space away from everyday life.
Also, we talk about Zen gardens as 'purely spiritual,' but in reality, they were built with huge wealth and were often used as luxury retreats or political hideouts for the elite. Paradoxically, a simple herb garden in a Western monastery—built for practical work—might actually be more 'faithful' to religious values than a grand, stylized Japanese garden.
In the end, maybe we are just forcing two different things into one word, 'Garden,' and hunting for differences that aren't really the point. If we only look at the contrasts, we lose sight of what these places truly are.
私は異を唱えてるわけでも、この比較を拒むわけでもないですが、私たちは、この二元論的な比較は西洋的な視点でありあまり効果的ではないと考える事もできます。そういった視点がおそらく必要です。比較によって浮かび上がることは、そもそもそうした個別の創造を下支えしている思想と異なる場合もあるだでしょう。比較で明らかにされることは限られており、またその着眼点をどこに設定するかで見えるものは無限に拡張されます。そういったことも踏まえて、もうすこし自明的にプレゼンテーションをする必要があるかもしれません。例えば、あなたは仏教的なコンテクストから、日本の庭／庭園を語りましたが、神という存在や天国へ憧れという点に関しては「garden／庭」は共通しているのかもしれません。アナタが言うように西洋の自然感は、「神の創造した世界」であるから西洋のガーデンは「創造」を行う場所だと考えることも出来ます、その点において日本庭園は仙郷(天国のようなもの)を模しているもので、その共通点を見出すことが出来ます。また、修道院の庭でハーブを作り実用性を増していった時、貴族や権力者の壮大な庭園は「世俗的」になったとの表現がありました。一方で日本の寺社仏閣の庭は常に宗教の瞑想の場所であった、と言うが。しかし平安時代から戦国にいたっても、仏教ひいては仏教派閥の多くはその権力との関係性を維持しており、その財源なくしては日本庭園も枯山水も存在しません。また、寺社仏閣が権力者や貴族が世俗を離れ心を休める場所、一種の別荘のような位置づけだったとと言う見方もあり。実際「駆け込み寺」というような表現もあり、政敵から逃れる避難場所だったわけです。結局日本においても、世俗的であるかはおいといて、力や財の象徴もしくは時の権力に対抗できる第三勢力として機能していたのは確かです。その点において、実践的な「修道院の庭のハーブ園」のほうがより、素朴な意味キリストのコンテクストにおいては信仰に忠実だとも言えるのではないでしょうか？
最初に戻りますが、アナタがこの比較で見えたものは、ここであなたがプレゼンしてる内容に、丁寧に寄り添ってますか？
この二元論的な比較は西洋的な視点だということを考えてみてください。比較で明らかになるのはその差異だけです。その差異をどう扱うかで結論は変わってしまうのです。そしてその差異そのものも、立っている場所で大きく変わるでしょう。比較によって明らかにするのではなく、比較そのものが結論を言うための前置きになってる様に感じれるのが少し残念です。文化的その重要性から「庭とgarden」は比較して語られがちですが、その違いが実際に語るもの以上に、我々は時に雄弁に語りがちです。そもそも何か違うものを、同じ呼び名に翻訳してしまい、そう認識しているだけなのかもしれません。または、本質的には同じことをしてるが、文化的背景とのコントラストにより、我々は違いを目ざとく発見しているだけなのかもしれません。要は私たちがが2つのものから違いを見出してそれを考える時、本来のあるべきモノの関係性から逸脱した場所に、その眼差しは存在してることをもう少し考えるべきではないでしょうか。
6:08 that’s EXACTLY what christianity teaches. They say all of nature is just there for humans to enslave and use for their will. It’s insane really.