Recommended reading
This is just a small selection of the many books available on Japanese gardens and garden design. If you have found this site useful, buying through one of the links on this page will make a small contribution towards helping maintain and improve it.
Creating Your Own Japanese Garden
Japan Publications Trading Co 1999
Takashi Sawano is a distinguished Japanese garden designer who has lived in Britain for more than two decades, so he's very aware of the climatic and soil conditions British gardeners face. This is a practical guide to creating a full-scale Japanese garden or simply giving that Japanese touch to one particular corner. Amply illustrated with full-colour photographs and diagrams.
A Japanese Touch for Your Garden
Kodansha 1995
All gardens benefit from having focal points. In this book, two Japanese garden experts and an American landscape architect explain the meaning of the various elements found in many Japanese gardens - rocks, bamboo, water features and so on. The emphasis is on encouraging gardeners to choose from the wide range of traditional features and adapting them to their own environment, rather than laying down inflexible guidelines. Fully illustrated with photographs and diagrams.
Infinite Spaces : The Art and Wisdom of the Japanese Garden
Aurum Press 2000
A book of stunning photographs, showing the wide range of Japanese garden design from all over Japan. The accompanying text is sparse, but resounds with the centuries-old spirit of Japanese horticulture. The words come from Sakuteiki (Notes on Garden Design), written nearly one-thousand years ago by Tachibana no Toshitsuna, an eleventh-century poet and courtier, and edited by the former keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the V&A Museum in London.
Japanese Gardens in a Weekend
Sterling Publishing 2001
A very practical approach to adding Japanese features to your garden. As the book's subtitle indicates, it's divided into projects estimated to take one, two or three weekends to complete. Well illustrated.