At 6:52. Katsura Villa, the actual palace structure which this garden surrounds, is famous in the West for having inspired the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Bauhaus architects and interior designers. It's stark, simple, geometric interiors, all built in the early 1600s, heavily influenced the sleek, simple modernist interiors and profiles of so many buildings in the West starting in the early 1920s and going into the 1950s. I hope we get to see a glimmer of this extremely important building almost unknown among Westerners.
At 12:18. The Saihoji moss garden, conceivably one of the most beautiful gardens in the world. Too bad it's closed off to the public. I would die, just DIE, to go and see it. It's so wonderful that Dan Pearson is friends with this Buddhist monk. He's getting him access everywhere. That was so not the case with Monty Don when he visited Kyoto. The only other gardens that are comparable in beauty, IMHO, are the Ninfa garden in central Italy and the garden of Villa Cimbrone in southern Italy.
At 21:00. I've been fortunate enough to see the Ryoanji garden. It was with a group, so I didn't get the solitude that you rightfully need to concentrate on it. But it is gorgeous. I think the wall in the back makes the garden. Without that rustic wall, it would fall a bit flat. The rust-like colors and gradients remind me of my most favorite painting by Francisco Goya, of a dog drowning in an unfeeling universe. I can't believe that Goya, one of Spain's greatest artists, echoed a Japanese zen garden that tries to encapsulate the Buddhist universe. It's uncanny.
