Research Center for Japanese Garden Art and Historical Heritage

Announcing the Intensive Seminar in Kyoto 2025

We would like to announce the schedule for the Intensive Seminar in 2025.
It will be held for a 14-day period from September 29 (Monday) to October 12 (Sunday), 2025.

The Research Center for Japanese Garden Art and Historical Heritage is pleased to announce the 20th annual English language intensive course in the history, design theory, landscape ecology, artistic sense, and practice of garden making in Japan. We have been running the Seminar successfully for 20 years, and have been joined by more than 440 participants from all over the world – from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. The international character of the participants has over the years increasingly stimulated the global character and contents of our teaching, making the Seminar a full and rewarding event for everyone involved, including the staff of the Center. The program is framed within the context of the Graduate School of the Kyoto University of the Arts: there is ample room for an individual learning experience for each participant, while contents are academic at the same time.

About the Program

The two-week program offers serious students from abroad a number of unique opportunities to study Japanese gardens. Fundamental to the learning experience of the seminar is the site. Apart from on-site lectures in gardens - some not open to the public - the seminar will also include on-site sessions with professional specialists to experience, first hand, the techniques and processes of Japanese garden design and construction. Some days will be divided between site visits and lectures on campus, but there will be several all-day excursions as well. There is a chance for you as a participant to tell us about your experiences, or discuss questions you are facing in a colloquium that is part of the seminar. Plenty of resources (documentations) will be provided by the Center. You have time to visit gardens and sites on your own in and around Kyoto, for which one day in the program is open. At the end of the course a garden building workshop provides an educational experience summarizing your personal learning experience in form of a little garden that you will build yourself under guidance of our staff. In order to provide maximum personal attention, we strive for a group limited to not more than 25 students.