Book Description
It begins with a wish and a waking dream: A city dweller laments her confined and hectic life, then sleeps and awakens to find the elements of a serene, traditional Japanese garden mirrored in a rain puddle and other objects on the rooftop outside her window.
Illustrated with original woodcuts, this wise and charming desiderata walks us through the traditional elements of a Japanese garden--pebble, lantern, leaf, butterfly--and illuminates, simply and gently, the wisdom and generosity in each. ("Be the pebble. Let time shape and smooth you.... Be the gardener. Create order.... Be the rain. Wash away, cleanse, forgive.... Be the moon. Shine through the dark.")
Accessible to both Eastern and Western sensibilities, this elegant and inspiring book is a testament to harmony, and to the Buddhist acceptance of nature and flow. Zen teaching tale and hymn to nature, "In a Japanese Garden" celebrates the gifts of serenity and joy embodied in a simple garden and available at any time, deep within ourselves.
About the Author
CHARMAINE ASERAPPA, daughter of an English mother and a Sri Lankan father, was born and educated in India, where she won prizes for writing and art.
She worked in fine book publishing and research in Toronto, New York and London, volunteered in her church and community and is a mother. "In a Japanese Garden" was launched in a Zen garden which she designed.
A dedicated Christian, she gave the Advent Address at the Episcopal Church at Yale University.
She is currently writing other books, including novels and plays.
AKIKO NAOMURA, a human service worker in New York City, comes from Fukuoka City, Japan. Her fine-art lithographs of her Greenwich Village neighborhood have been exhibited in Japan. Akiko handmade the woodcuts for "In a Japanese Garden" by a traditional method, carving the images into blocks of pine, which where then inked and printed onto rice paper.
