FRS 002 — Sec. 019 — (2 units) — CRN 73063 — M 3:10-5:00pm — 102 EAPL (Giannini Equine Athletic Performance Lab Conference Room)
What is Beauty? Cultural and Historical Roots of Japanese Garden Design

Instructor: James Jones, Department of Surgical & Radiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine

Description: The course will explore the factors that make Japanese gardens bastions of tranquility, beauty and meditative contemplation. We will discuss basic elements that are incorporated into Japanese gardens to create their unique environments, and will relate these to their origins in Japanese history and culture. We will discuss the evolution of Japanese gardens from the prehistoric period through Paradise Gardens, Zen Dry Gardens, Samurai Stroll Gardens, and Tea Gardens. The factors influencing the design of these gardens will be related to major periods of Japanese historical development through the Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo Periods, as well as the evolution of Shinto and Buddhism as religious/philosophical influences and the Tea Ceremony as a social convention. The seminar is designed to give students an appreciation of the many levels of beauty on which a Japanese garden can be appreciated, and to make them aware of the broad range of influences and traditions that underlie their designs. We will discuss the reasons that particular design elements are used or avoided in certain ways in Japanese gardens, and consider the purposes these serve in terms of conveying particular aspects of Japanese cultural or aesthetic values. Students will leave the class with knowledge to look at Japanese gardens and understand what the designer of the garden was trying to do by incorporating various components into the garden in the way it is laid out.

Format: The seminar will alternate presentations of historical and cultural information and discussion with virtual tours of different Japanese gardens using 5000 photographs I have taken of various Japanese gardens, images from my library of 50+ volumes on Japanese gardens, computer presentations from "Kyoto Gardens," an interactive computer program, and videotapes of the Tea Ceremony, Buddhist and Shinto activities, recreations of significant historical events that have influenced Japanese culture, and video footage from tours of different Japanese gardens. The class will visit the Japanese garden that I have constructed at my house in Davis and we will hold our own Tea Ceremony, taste sushi and other Japanese food items. Reading will be assigned from Japan: A Short History (J. Gillespie) and A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto (M. Treib and R. Herman). Additional readings may be assigned from reserve copies of: A Traveller’s History of Japan (R. Tames), Landscape Gardening in Japan (J. Conder), Japanese Garden Design (M. P. Keane), Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens (D. A. Slawson), Japanese Gardens (G. Nitschke), The Gardens of Japan (S. Itoh), The Garden as Architecture: Form and Spirit in the Gardens of Japan, China and Korea (T. Inaji), The World of the Japanese Garden. From Chinese Origins to Modern Landscape Art (L. Kuek), Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden (J. Takei and M. P. Keane), and The Tea Ceremony (S. Tanaka and S. Tanaka), as well as readings from the Journal of Japanese Gardening. The first sessions will provide background information on Japanese history and culture and to explore elements of Japanese garden design. Each class will include a discussion of the background reading for that meeting. During the first four weeks, students will select a specific Japanese garden on which they would like to do research to understand its historical context and how it is designed, or else will elect to do a design project of their own for their class project. Each student will decide if they wish to present the findings from their historical study garden or their design project to the class as a final oral presentation. Grading: Grades will be assigned based on four factors: short written assignments done during the course (25%), participation in and contributions to oral discussions of background reading (25%), written paper on background study of a specific Japanese garden or the student’s individual Japanese garden design project (25%), and the student's oral presentation to the class of either the garden study or their garden design project (25%).

About the Instructor: I teach courses dealing with cardiovascular, respiratory, exercise, environmental and comparative physiology in the veterinary school as well as graduate courses in the same topics; I lecture in undergraduate physiology courses and have taught mammalogy to undergraduates in the old Zoology Department. My research focuses primarily in physiological factors that limit and enable maximal performance in animals, especially race horses. I am the research director of the Equine Athletic Performance laboratory that is near the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. I collaborate extensively with veterinarians and researchers of the Japan Racing Association and travel to Japan at least once annually to study horses and gardens there.