For all the damage that has occurred over the centuries, for all the relentless and destructive modernization still taking place today, Kyoto, imperial capital for more than a millennium, remains a rich, inexhaustible archive of Japanese cultural history.

Houses and Gardens of Kyoto introduces a broad array of Kyoto's traditional houses from every period of the city's history. They range from summer villas to townhouses, from monumental Buddhist temples to insubstantial garden pavilions, from personal homes to traditional inns. All have their associated outdoor spaces, whether condensed courtyard gardens, picturesque stroll gardens, "dry landscape" stone gardens or the "borrowed scenery" of distant landscapes.

Both exquisite photo album and fascinating historical study, Houses and Gardens of Kyoto is sure to be the standard reference work on this topic for many decades to come.

Photographer(s): Akihiko Seki
Photographs by: Akihiko Seki