Japan's beauty

It has been a while since I wrote. In the between time I have been away on a great adventure, long awaited and much anticipated: two weeks on a textile tour of Japan. I must confess to some trepidation beforehand; a long flight, potential for being fed "squiggly things" (I am a food coward), potential for offending the Japanese folk through misunderstanding. All nonsense of course, the trip was just marvelous, and included a large and inspiring amount of textile related visits and workshops. It also included two breathtaking gardens; one at the Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi, and the second, the Korakuen Gardens in Okayama.

The first are advertised as a "living Japanese painting" and indeed they were. They are viewing gardens, rather than ones to stroll through. One walked through the museum of art finding numerous points in the journey to stop and take in the perfection and pristine presentation of these wonderful arrangements of trees, moss, water and gravel, finely crafted gateways and borrowed landscapes. I confess to enjoying the gardens a great deal more than the art on the walls!

The following day we visited Okayama Castle. 

Before climbing the hill to the castle itself, we spent far too short a time in the beautiful Korakuen Gardens just below, where we were allowed to stroll, stop and wonder. After an initial query about the lack of green, we were told that the golden brown of the grass was quite normal in early spring, and not the result of a dry winter, simply the way Japanese grass grows. Again, there was such harmony in the arrangement of carefully manicured trees, bridges, lanterns and water. The reflections doubled the pleasure of the view and of course, there were the flickering bodies of gold and silver koi moving beneath the ripples, one rather gorgeous terrapin and the stately, swaying trunks of bamboo. 

All too soon we were called away to visit the castle. A few members stayed in the gardens and I was almost sorry I hadn't done the same. While a marvelous trip, there were too few moments to just stand and reflect, so I am perhaps getting more pleasure from revisiting in my photographs than I did while I was there. I hope you enjoy then too.