How Kew created a Japanese Tea Garden: Kew’s Peace Garden

Описание: The Peace Garden at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew evokes a 16th century Japanese tea garden or roji. It creates an atmospheric entrance to the wider Japanese gardens, a landscape designed by Professor Fukuhara of Osaka University. The landscape opened in 1996 following restoration of the Chokushi-Mon Gateway of the Imperial Messenger, which is over 100 years old. Walking through the tea garden, the influence of the grand tea master Sen no Rikyū and his contemporaries is considered. The garden incorporates restful evergreen planting such as mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus 'Nanus') and Fatsia japonica, two styles of path (tobi ishi and nobedan), two types of traditional stone lantern (Kasuga and Oribe), a tsukubai wash basin, and a twisting walkway reminiscent of an ancient zig zag path or Yatsuhashi bridge. Uprooted grass (from 4:22) shows where badgers forage at night, which is apt for the concept of ‘wabi’, a set of values centred on the acceptance of imperfection and transition.

Apologies for amateur pronunciation in the audio. For those interested in a source of greater expertise and detail on the history of roji:
Richard Bullen (2016) Chinese sources in the Japanese tea garden, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 36:1, 5-16, DOI: 10.1080/14601176.2015.1076667