(Part.3) Japanese Garden Tour with Reflections: Recalling Two Years of Our Creations

Episode 3! This is the end of our look back for now!
Next time I will make another video!

施工庭師：仲佐修二 / Shuji Nakasa
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkfpGA6uftw&t=632s
https://www.instagram.com/niwanotoki_shu/

北山都乾園：Kitayama Tokanen
Video：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMunP2kDhxU
https://www.instagram.com/kitayamatokanen_kyoto_japan/

施工庭師：金綱造園事務所 / kanetsunazouen
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLzjIVSCCMw&t=228s
https://www.instagram.com/kanetsunazouen/

Please send inquiries to this e-mail address.
niwayama.plan@gmail.com

□ Camera provided by BlackMagicDesign
・Camera：　Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K pro
・ Video editing software：　DaVinci Resolve
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/jp/p…

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Continuing from the previous video, I would like to look back on the past two years’ worth of garden projects with my impressions and how things were going at the time. Over the past two years, I have been all over Japan, to so many different places,

Met so many different s, and had wonderful experiences. I hope you will enjoy it to the end. First, I would like to introduce you to this garden construction project. This is a hot spring resort town called Arifuku Onsen in Shimane Prefecture. Renovation work was done at one of the hotels there.

We renovated these two gardens. The most difficult thing about creating the gardens at this site was the difficulty of bringing in materials. The building is located at the upper part of the hill,so all the materials had to be brought in little by little through narrow paths.

It was a hot summer day, and we had to go back and forth between the top and the bottom of the hill many times as we worked. What I personally found amazing about Mr. Nakasa was the way he chose materials that ordinary gardeners would never have chosen.

“How can you put in such large materials in this difficult-to-access location?” I have seen many work sites myself, but I don’t think there are many gardeners who choose materials as aggressively as Mr. Nakasa does. Even in this case, he brought in a ridiculously heavy hand basin about 2 meters above the ground,

Large stones, and large trees in a space that was not that large. This is something that can never be done without skill and experience, and is very difficult. Even if an ordinary gardener could have done it, they would not have made such a challenging choice of materials at this site.

However, it is precisely because of this challenge that the garden is unique and could only be created by Mr. Nakasa. the garden is unique and could only be created by Mr. Nakasa. In addition, his grasp of space and his planting ability support this challenging choice of materials.

Since this is a small space, it is possible that when he put in materials this large, the size of the materials would be too large to match what he had envisioned. However, Mr. Nakasa’s ability to grasp space is very high, and this large material fit perfectly in this small space.

In addition, Mr. Nakasa used to be a bonsai artist, and he is very skillful in handling each plant and underbrush, planting them really gently and softly. Because of this skill, he strong and piercing impression of the stones is neutralized by the soft plants,

Creating a garden with a sense of unity as a whole. The balance between stones and plants. Hardness and softness. I feel that there are not many Niwashis who can achieve a balance between these two at a high level.

It is because he kept bringing in materials from the bottom to the top over and over again, and kept taking on challenges, that he was able to create this fantastic garden. In this video, I asked Mr. Kitayama, the representative of Kitayama Tokanen,

a company that deals with stone lanterns, to tell us more about stone lanterns. The stone lanterns are A stone lantern is made up of these parts. And about the name of the lantern… This is where you put the light, This is the stone lanterns.

I have seen many different stone lanterns in various Japanese gardens. I wondered how many types of simple stone lanterns are there? I asked Mr. Kitayama this simple question. it depends on how you divide the types. If you think broadly, I think there are hundreds or even thousands of types. Originally ,

There are many ways to divide the types of lanterns. For example, they can be classified by location, or by type of stone. or by the purpose of use. You mentioned the word “Oribe lanterns” earlier. It is also possible to divide them by the creator. Actually

A pole is buried in the ground. A Ikekomi- type which has four or three legs. Yukimi lantern It is the easiest way to understand by shape-type. Taking this into consideration, Now that we know there are five types of lanterns, Please enjoy and have a look.

Mr. Kitayama is truly knowledgeable about many things, including stone lanterns, and I have learned many things from him on a daily basis. Since Mr. Kitayama taught me so much about stone lanterns, I have started to look at various stone lanterns and other stone structures more carefully.

When I didn’t have knowledge about stone lanterns, I would just look at them casually, After learning about them, I became even more interested in them and found them more interesting. Stone lanterns really have a long history and are a very deep field.

I feel that I still have a lot to learn about stone lanterns. I hope to share what I have learned with you in the future. First of all, please watch the original video here for a more detailed explanation!

In this video, I filmed the maintenance of the garden before the tea ceremony in Tokyo. The Niwashis are Shigeharu Kanatsuna and his son Junichi. Mr. Kanatsuna has long been active at the forefront as a Niwashi who creates so-called “Roji,” or Tea gardens that lead up to the tea ceremony room.

He has created numerous Roji gardens in Tokyo and elsewhere. In the world of tea ceremony, there is a concept of “Shichu no Sankyo,” or “mountain residence in the city. This concept has already been used in Japan for about 600 years.

At that time, Kyoto, the center of Japan, was a fairly large city and was surrounded by hustle and bustle. Even in such an environment, the concept was to make the space of the tea ceremony room a healing space where tea could be enjoyed without tension, just like a secluded mountain field.

This concept is still used today in modern garden design, and I think the Roji garden created by Mr. Kanatsuna can be described as a “mountain residence in the city. The Roji created by Mr. Kanatsuna creates a serenity as if deep in the forest, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

In this garden, too, a place filled with many people in Tokyo became a peaceful space The Roji created by Mr. Kanatsuna creates a serenity as if deep in the forest, creating a mysterious atmosphere. In covering Mr. Kanatsuna’s maintenance, what I felt most strongly was his pride as a Niwashi.

I assume that many of Mr. Kanatsuna’s clients are top-level cultured people in Japan who respect tea culture. They ask Mr. Kanatsuna to make Tea Garden for them because they want him to make it for them.

I can only imagine the unimaginable pressure they must be under to create a garden that meets their expectations. That is why they are uncompromising in every single step of their work, from the creation to the maintenance of the garden, and take great “pride” in their work.

This time, it was the maintenance before the tea ceremony, and they literally removed even the tiniest dust particles to leave not a single speck of dirt, and they cleaned even the places that the guests attending the tea ceremony could never reach without compromise.

It was the very figure of proud Niwashi who bears the history and culture on their backs. At the same time, I also felt the depth of the history of tea ceremony and Japanese garden culture and the accumulation of its history.　

Many tea masters and Niwashis are still carefully passing on the crystallization of the culture that has been cultivated over a long history to the next generation. I sincerely felt that I would like to be able to help in some small way.