Some of you may know the Japanese term Mizuya (水屋), expressed with Chinese characters for “water” and “house”, as a type of Japanese kitchen chests. It is getting popular in New York and other metropolises. Yet did you realize that Mizuya initially had a quite different meaning? Mizuya originally referred to, and still could refer
At our talk in April in New York, among a variety of questions we were happy to receive, there was an interesting one that could be called a linguestic question: “What does sansui (山水) mean? Does it mean nature or a garden?” In Japanese, san (山) means a mountain and
Takaya Kurimoto of PED presented a lecture on “Water in Japanese Gardens” at Nichibei Exchange in New York on April 28. Water is one of the most important elements in Japanese gardens. Even Japanese dry gardens have imaginary water. Takaya introduced some examples to illustrate the meaning and design of
Is this, seen on this picture of Machiya townhouse in Kyoto, an opening or a wall? Japanese architecture have neither, not in a clearly defined way in Western architecture. An element that looks like a wall is thin and can slide open. Other things that look like openings are just perforated walls. The
In Japan, people think that water sometimes becomes a border to divide two different worlds. Kamo River, which runs through Kyoto City, also used to be thought as the border to separate the world for the living from that for the dead. There was a crematory in the area called
