Musings by Diane Durston, Curator Emerita   見渡せば / 花も紅葉も / なかりけり / 浦の苫屋の / 秋の夕暮れ Miwataseba  / hana mo momiji mo / nakarikeri / ura no tomaya no / aki no yuugure Casting wide my gaze, Neither flowers Nor scarlet maple leaves– A humble fisherman’s hut, In the autumn dusk.   With this poem, Fujiwara no Teika, an …

MUSINGS BY DIANE DURSTON, CURATOR EMERITA Walking the empty streets of Tokyo last week in search of a bit of nature to refresh his spirit, calligrapher Kihachiro Nishiura noticed a camphor tree with a small plaque beneath it that identified it as having grown from the seed of a tree that stood in Nagasaki on …

MUSINGS FROM DIANE DURSTON, CURATOR EMERITA   Among the many people I met in Kyoto over the eighteen years I lived there, the most memorable were the craftsmen. Spending time with them I always learned something, not just about crafts, but about life—about what it means to make something you are proud of every day, …

We certainly haven’t chosen the hermit’s life we are living today, but throughout history the solitary life provided the perfect way for some of Japan’s greatest writers to get at to the meaning of life.

Musings from Diane Durston, Curator Emerita In the summer of 2015, I had the honor of curating an exhibition of ceramic work in the Garden Pavilion by artisans from Mashiko, where potters’ studios, kilns, as well as many priceless works were destroyed in the earthquake of 2011. Thirteen Mashiko potters, including the grandson of Living …

Musings from Diane Durston, Curator Emerita As we face the days and weeks ahead away from our beloved Garden, it may help to look to Japan for inspiration from some of the great poets the past and understand how they responded to their own challenging times. All this alone time can be stressful. It can …