Sukiya living

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To insist that “Sukiya Living” is the correct name for what most would call a Japanese garden seems an odd, almost argumentative stance to take. The term is modernist in tone with its denial of any historical or religious content but can any garden influenced by something with a pedigree as rich as the way Japanese garden be totally secular?
When the ‘California style’ became popular it was within the context of where and when, a context that provided a situation where people had more leisure time, more money and because of the Californian climate the blurring of inside and outside was a workable idea. One influence on this way of living came from Japan with its simplicity of material that allowed for an easy passage from one living space to another obscuring the barriers between house and garden. The borrowing of notions Japanese is evident in the style that Eichler developed, it is evident in the gardens of James Rose and Tommy Church and are indeed totally secular: is this the real sukiya living? Unless we are sticking strictly to an architectural style to provide the meaning for the gardens shown here then they could equally be Californian. When the self taught designer Fujitara Kubota attempted to make traditional Japanese gardens on the American west coast (1927 - 1979) he quickly discovered that although the principles that govern the traditional model were universal their application needed modification because of cultural differences.


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Traditionally gardens are made at the same time as the house and there is a close collaboration between designer/architect/client/builder a tradition that does not exist in the U.S. There is an attention to detail in a Japanese garden that requires a high level of craftsmanship and once built they need skilled maintenance and none of these qualities existed in the American workforce. So it is my contention that what is being called ‘sukiya living’ is not a traditional Japanese art yet is influenced by a Japanese aesthetic and is indistinguishable from ‘California style’ in all except the use of certain Japanese artifacts.