Classic Garden Tour of Kyoto, October 2010
This tour will begin with a special dinner in Kyoto on 28th October, and can be booked through our travel agent Emerald Travel. To show interest or request more information please contact Kristina. Guest numbers are limited so please apply early.
For this tour we shall be joined by the distinguished American garden designer and lecturer Patrick Chassé, ASLA.
view : Detailed Itinerary
Summary of tour:
For the first part of our tour we will be staying in a luxury hotel in the centre of Kyoto. There will be visits to local temples and gardens by coach, accompanied by our own Japanese speaking guide. We will visit the silver temple, Ginkaku-ji, and the golden pavilion, Kinkaku-ji, classical Japanese gardens made by warlords when they had stopped fighting and were at peace with themselves.
At the Daitoku-ji temple precinct you will be able to view many small and
famous gardens including those of Daisen-in, and Koto-in where we hope the
maples will be in their best colours.
At the most famous garden in Japan, Ryoan-ji – the Dragon Peace Temple –
the rock garden dates from 1500. Here the 15 rocks in the raked sand, representing
islands in the sea, have been placed so that they can never all be viewed
at the same time, from the verandah.
We hope to be able to have the opportunity to include the Imperial garden
Katsura in the suburbs of Kyoto and another Imperial garden Shugakuin, which
is breathtakingly beautiful in autumn. This was the garden created by the
retired Emperor Gomizuno-o between 1655 and 1659 amoung terraced rice fields
in the hills above Kyoto
A day tour will take us into the countryside to the Miho Museum in its magnificent setting, designed by the Chinese architect I. M. Pei.
Another garden will be the illusive but famous Moss temple – Saiho-ji, made in 1339. Here, before being allowed to see its verdant and velvety gardens you are obliged to practice calligraphy in the temple. This can be both a challenging and uplifting experience and not to be missed.
The Kyoto Botanic garden always has a magnificent display of Chrysanthemums called kiku and we will spend a morning visiting these. I prefer the bonsai-style collection with their tiny flowers and roots which reach down the face of the stones they are planted on. It is hard to believe that these are just smaller versions of the huge specimen chrysanthemums we will see displayed outside in the gardens.
We will take a day trip to Nara the ancient capital of Japan. Here is a restoration of a remarkable garden, To-in Teien, the oldest in Japan, in the grounds of the original palace. Nearby is a beautiful little garden Isuien using the Todai-ji temple gateway and distance hills as borrowed landscape.
Breakfast will be provided everyday, and lunches on most other days while we are garden visiting. There is the opportunity to spend extra nights in Japan, as well as continue on with an add on tour. If you would like further details on the itinerary and prices for this tour please contact Kristina