Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto

Cutting Back recounts Buck's bold journey and the revelations she has along the way. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning from one of the most storied landscaping companies in Kyoto. At 35, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. She is taught how to bring nature's essence into a garden scene, how to design with native plants, and how to subtly direct a visitor through a landscape. During her apprenticeship in Japan, she learns that the best Kyoto gardens look so natural they appear untouched by human hands, even though her crew spends hours meticulously cleaning every pebble in the streams. But she learns the most important lessons from her fellow gardeners: how to balance strength with grace, seriousness with humor, and technique with heart.

A Fascinating Look at Japan's Garden Craftsmen Even though I'm not a gardener, I found this book to be charming, entertaining and educational. It's an account of the author's apprenticeship in Kyoto, Japan pruning trees and working in the city's beautiful and historic gardens. Yes, there's lots of information about plants, but I loved the cultural insights about the people, the food, their homes, habits and more. Especially interesting is the astonishing work ethic and pace of her Japanese colleagues and the rigid employee hierarchy by which it operates. Read it if you want to broaden your horizons and gain a de. "Another side of Japan" according to DW. My husband and I lived in Japan and also love gardening. He is reading this delightful book out loud and it is an interesting and fun memoir.. Vivid and unrelentingly honest, this thrifty and well-written memoir Kris Lackey Vivid and unrelentingly honest, this thrifty and well-written memoir follows Leslie Buck through her internship as a Kyoto gardener. As an American in Japan, and as a woman in a traditionally man's world, she is doubly a stranger. Buck registers her frustrations and triumphs in a compelling narrative.