On Sunday, October 29, Writers in Kyoto had the honour and pleasure of a lunchtime talk by Japanese garden expert, Marc Keane. After some twenty years in Japan, when he not only studied about Japanese gardens but designed them, he returned to America where he taught at Cornell University before relocating recently back to Kyoto.

Marc’s presentation focused on the nine books he has written, plus the three books he is currently working on. As well as being published by the two leading Japan specialists, Tuttle and Stone Bridge Press, he has also self-published books, being adept at computers and design. His publications on Japanese gardens, such as The Art of Setting Stones, have won worldwide acclaim not only for their insight into the aesthetics involved, but for the quality of the language. Given his work with translations of Japanese garden poetry, it was understandable that he is branching out himself into literary writing.

Remarkably, Marc told us he is currently working on three books at the same time. One has to do with bonsai, one to do with how we name things of the world, and one an ambitious work of fiction on the theme of empathy. All three sounded appealing, but the one about naming was the most intriguing, coming over as a charming folk tale with an Alan Watts message negating the notion of separation and asserting oneness with the environment. Question and answer followed over coffee, when it became clear that Marc wrote neither for money or fame but for the love of writing. It is fair to say that readers of his books get to be the beneficiaries.