Shunmyo Masuno, Zen priest and Professor of Tama Art University is one of Japan’s leading landscape and garden designers. In his approach to his work, he is following an ancient tradition of Zen priests who practised the art of landscape gardening. These priests are known as the Ishidate-so.

For Shunmyo, the garden is the place where the mind dwells. Muso Soseki, a thirteenth century Ishidate-so, wrote: “There is nothing special in water and mountain, there is special only in the mind of people.”

The Zen state of mind can’t be directly expressed in words; therefore Zen priests have often sought other means of expressing their insight and spiritual state. The arts they have turned to for their expression are calligraphy, Ikebana, and rock placement.

These design activities become an expression of what is in the mind of its creator, and can be enjoyed by people who are moved by the expression of the designer. For the Zen priest and garden designer, the garden is the mirror of the mind.

Shunmyo believes that when people live in urban centres, under the pressures of work, the presence of a garden gives them a welcome relief from their daily stress, and helps them adopt a simpler approach to life. The garden allows the person who experiences it to develop a sensitivity that is very different to the concerns one faces in the daily routine of work.

As architects, we aim to practice these teachings of Shunmyo Masuno and apply them to our designs.

by Robin Monotti Graziadei, with the help of Shunmyo Masuno’s office in Japan.