BonteiTray Gardens

Marc Peter KeaneOﬃce of Marc Peter Keanewww.mpkeane.com

In a garden there is a stillness or a motion
A sense of time or one of timelessness
a certain color, texture.... a balance of parts.
These are the things I try to capture in my bontei

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

BONTEI • TRAY GARDENSMPK 01Bontei Tray Gardens
盆庭

I am an artist and garden designer who works in the Japanese tradition. Now based in Ithaca, NY, I lived inKyoto, Japan, for nearly twenty years designing gardens for private individuals, companies and Buddhist
temples. My recent work includes a series of modern, sculptural tray gardens that evoke aspects of Japanesegardens – some physical and some philosophical. I call these tray gardens Bontei (盆庭) an old word — notin most dictionaries — that I resurrected because it suits these new, modern tray gardens perfectly.
The design of my tray gardens derives from that of Japanese gardens, especially the arrangements of sand andstones known as karesansui, and from the tea gardens, called roji. The overall balance, for instance, often
incorporates “empty” space and points of punctuation found in karesansui. This emptiness is called “ma” inJapanese and can refer to the undeveloped space in a garden, the unpainted portion of an ink landscapepainting or a silent period in music. The aesthetic of bontei, their colors, patterns and textures, is that ofcommon materials used in a reﬁned way. Stones, rusted metal, wood-ﬁred ceramics. In Japan, this would becalled the wabi aesthetic, which is most closely associated with the tea ceremony. As a counterpoint to therusticity of the wabi elements, I introduce elements that are precise and highly controlled. This interplay
between opposites is also a common theme in the aesthetics of the tea ceremony in which the element ofcontrol is called “shin” and that of wildness is called “sô.”April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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By the Riverside

In the collection of the Johnson Museum of Art
river stones, rusted iron & wood-ﬁred ceramic, with pegged cherry tray, 35" diameter

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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Still Point 1

Private collection San Francisco

river stones with black walnut tray, 38" x 24"

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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Still Point 2

Private collection, Ohio
river stones, red oak grooved tray, 38" x 25"

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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Where Forest Meets Field
hemlock bark, weathered & burnt pine slivers, wood-ﬁred ceramic, black walnut/maple tray, 30" diameter

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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The Ploughman's Dream (aluminum)

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard Universityslate, river stone, hemlock bark, wood-ﬁred ceramic, brushed aluminum tray, 36" diameter

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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The Ploughman's Dream (steel)

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
slate, river stone, aspen bark, wood-ﬁred ceramic, patinated steel tray, 36" diameter

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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A Stillness in the Stream

Portland Japanese Garden, Portland ORriver stone and woven aluminum wire, carved mahogany, 37" x 21"

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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Blue Mountains Walking
Private collection , Boston

wood-ﬁred ceramic, ﬂamed glass, weathered barnyard tray, 37" x 10"

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

BONTEI • TRAY GARDENSMPK 10about the designer
Marc Peter Keane is an internationally recognized landscape architect, author and educator. Having lived andworked in Japan for nearly 20 years, his designs are deeply influenced by the culture of East Asia. Over the past
three decades, he has worked on projects in Japan, the United States, and the Middle East.
Keane has published 8 books, mainly on aspects of Japanese gardens: their history, design and aesthetics.
These include Japanese Garden Design (1996) an introduction to the history and design of Japanese gardens;
Sakuteiki (2001) a translation of Japan’s thousand-year-old gardening treatise; and, The Art of Setting Stones (2002)
essays for the philosophical gardener, or the gardening philosopher.
Keane has taught landscape architecture at The Kyoto University of Art and Design, and at Cornell
University, and is presently a visiting fellow at those two institutions as well as at Columbia University.

Marc Peter Keane
info@mpkeane.com • www.mpkeane.com

April 5, 2019

Oﬃce of Marc Peter Keane

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