Japanese garden design and contemporary art merge with spectacular results at Matsue
Not all the best gardens in Japan are steeped in history; In Matsue, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, a garden created in 1980 has won awards left, right and center. Here, the line between garden design and Japanese art has been deliberately blurred to expand the appreciation of the two.
The gardens surrounding the Adachi Museum of Art were created by the museum’s founder, Adachi Zenko, and use trees and rocks from all over Japan in six sections: moss, pond, dry landscape, white gravel, pine, and waterfalls.
The gardens can only be seen from inside the museum. This sense of looking inward makes the gardens look like framed works of art, alongside the museum’s collection of contemporary Japanese paintings.