Ueyakato Landscape has posted a new keywords article to its English website!
2022/05/11｜News
Ueyakato Landscape has posted a new keywords article to its English website!
This time we're looking at stepping stones.
In the English language, few words describe a means-to-an-end approach more directly than “stepping stone.” In a Japanese garden too, stepping stones serve the instrumental purpose of leading guests to a tea ceremony without soiling their clothes. Yet the Japanese name tobi-ishi (meaning “sporadic stones”) suggests an awareness that the technique of placing the stones not too straight, but at somewhat discontinuous intervals also played an important aesthetic role in the garden’s scenery. Whatever the case, the stepping stone path illustrates like nothing else how the creative tension between functionality and beauty in a Japanese garden literally extends right down to our feet.
Read the article here!
In the English language, few words describe a means-to-an-end approach more directly than “stepping stone.” In a Japanese garden too, stepping stones serve the instrumental purpose of leading guests to a tea ceremony without soiling their clothes. Yet the Japanese name tobi-ishi (meaning “sporadic stones”) suggests an awareness that the technique of placing the stones not too straight, but at somewhat discontinuous intervals also played an important aesthetic role in the garden’s scenery. Whatever the case, the stepping stone path illustrates like nothing else how the creative tension between functionality and beauty in a Japanese garden literally extends right down to our feet.
Read the article here!