East Asian Gardens as Social Spaces

A one-day symposium at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

This symposium will examine how gardens, both private and imperial, were viewed and used in China, Korea, and Japan. The term “garden” connotes, among many things, shelter, ownership, mental and physical sustenance, and nature’s beauty. In all three countries, gardens were gathering places for the imperial family, literati, scholar officials, poets, musicians, and performers. Gardens were enclaves of intellectual
and political retreat, book publishing and collecting, poetry, painting and calligraphy. The speakers will examine these different aspects and more in selected gardens, whether fictional or real, in China, Korea and Japan.