Masuno: Contemporary Garden Design

What do societies need from a contemporary garden design? The Japanese Zen garden is becoming an increasingly desirable garden in Japan and beyond. Thus gardens delight the sense and challenge of the mind and soul. Masuno’s aim is to create a garden, that invokes a soul which allows people to show on how their lives are well everyday either the traditional design or modern design. Zen gardens are the result of century’s tradition and experience and as such, they serve a treasure of inspiration to be enjoyed and be valued. It is from these histories; rooted that the most needed world gardening traditions have grown and developed to date. As a result, contemporary Zen gardens are the the output of such evolutionary process by forwarding the inheritance

It was from this early on that he augmented his interest and understanding of the Japanese Zen aesthetic principles. Without exposing such principles many Zen gardens in Japan and outside Japan that appears to have simplicity and tranquility were created. But this can be insufficient to give an first appearance and to be called a Zen style garden. Masuno indicated that those gardens created by the disciplined practitioner and tried to apply the principles are called true Zen gardens. Masuno clearly plays with these aesthetic principles and did so inventively to design a modern Zen garden. But how did his designs play with these aesthetic principles that are arrestingly different, interesting and perhaps even successful both in Japan and beyond? Therefore this section will discuss the main Zen aesthetic principles of the of the Zen garden and how did in the real garden design is to be

In these gardens, balance is derived from the natural form than man-made elements (Keane 1996). Most traditional Japanese Zen gardens are designed so that they won’t balance symmetrically and when they are free from faultlessness. It’s designed with odd numbers and being out of shape which is different from the beauty which is not seen in symmetrical designs (Shinichi 1958). This principle depends on the basis on the Zen of no-rule. (Gishin and Akemi 2012). Thus in the Zen gardens, designers played with the design elements to form a pleasing arrangement, which no single element is dominant. Masuno paid remarkable attention to the balance and harmony of the space and elements which are always a priority in his designs of modern Zen garden. In most of his designs balances are achieved with the asymmetrical and an off centered design approaches. He normally avoids creating a dominant point that steals the attention of the viewer. For Masuno the balance of the spaces and elements in the garden is foremost since he knew it needed to accommodate not for the sake of the principle, but for “invisible power exists, creating a deep mutual relationship between the items or parts” (Locher 2012,