The Japanese Tea Garden

Marc Peter Keane

Marc Peter Keane, a landscape architect and a leading expert on Japanese garden design, focuses on gardens not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also (like poetry, sculpture and painting) as allegorical compositions. Over the past 20 years, he has designed and built numerous gardens for private residences, businesses and temples, ranging from a 1200-sq.-ft. tea garden to a 6-acre park. Keane's interest in historic preservation led to his creation of an award-winning master plan for the redesign of a historic district in Nagano, Japan. Omega Point, his installation for the 2000 Kyoto Arts Festival, won the Grand Prize that year. Keane is frequently asked to consult on the restoration of historic Japanese gardens outside Japan. His restoration of the Japanese garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden won an award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 2001. Most recently, he has been commissioned to undertake a proposed major renovation project for the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY. Keane has been a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Design at Kyoto University of Art and Design, as well as chair of Kyoto Mitate International, an organization working to revitalize Kyoto's traditional environments and its unique cultural heritage. He also conducts lectures in Kyoto for American college students; runs an annual 2-week seminar in English on Japanese gardens; and lectures extensively throughout the United States, England and Japan. Keane is the author of The Japanese Tea Garden, The Art of Setting Stones and Japanese Garden Design (Tuttle Publishing, 2000). He is co-author (with Jiro Takei) of Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden, (Tuttle, 2001). He has also published numerous articles and essays relating to Japanese gardens and preservation in Kyoto.