The International Japanese Garden Training Center is proud to present renowned author and landscape architect Marc P. Keane giving a public lecture, “Japanese Garden Notes: Seeing Through a Designer’s Eyes,” in support of his highly-acclaimed new book.

As the first foreigner to obtain a work permit in Japan for landscape architecture, he lived and worked in Kyoto, Japan for 18 years, designing gardens for private individuals, companies and temples. His garden design work includes private residences, company grounds, and temple gardens, as well as a park in Tokushima and a historic district in Nagano. He continues his design work now from his studio in Ithaca, New York, blending Eastern and Western aesthetics and philosophies. Keane is also the author of several books on Japanese gardens and some works of literary fiction related to gardens, nature and the human condition.

I’ve spent hours poring over Keane’s past books; [Japanese Garden Notes: A Visual Guide to Elements and Design] presents a distillation of his years of studying and creating gardens in both the United States and Japan. It’s an elegantly soulful interpretation of the essential elements of Japanese garden design. – Dominique Browning, New York Times, May 29, 2017

A practicing visual artist, Keane notes that his artwork is all related in one way or another to gardens and nature, whether in the form of ceramics, bontei tray gardens, large-scale installations or other media. He is currently affiliated with the Research Center for Japanese Garden Art at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, the East Asian Program at Cornell University, and the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies at Columbia University. Keane has lectured extensively throughout the United States, England, and Japan.

Japanese Garden Notes approaches the complex story of Japanese gardens in six sections: intent and time, space and passage, function and art, architecture, garden ornaments, and details. Instead of approaching gardens by type and historical era, Keane explores the philosophies and techniques that embody the spirit of Japanese gardens, with short, poetic passages supported by his own beautifully detailed images.