Welcome Our New Scholar-in-Residence

Photo: Mark Bourne

We are pleased to introduce Mark Bourne as the newly appointed Scholar-in-Residence at Seattle Japanese Garden.

Mark is currently a PhD candidate in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, with a research specialty in Japanese Garden history. Mark mastered the art of Japanese gardens through a four-year long apprenticeship in Kyoto, working in many Imperial Household gardens and major Zen temples. After completing his training in Kyoto, Mark designed and built residential gardens.

In his new official role, Mark will spearhead a historical archive project. He will also offer education about Japanese gardens and their history on this blog, as well as in future workshops.  

It is a pleasure to take this role at the garden. I will try to post something here every six weeks or so, either updates about archives and translations, garden history, or about one of the many other topics that arise as the seasons pass. It is my goal that these will build into a history of the garden, told in small pieces and collected together here. There are other archival projects that are also in the works, and as those are finished they will also be announced here, as well as finding a home online that will be accessible to the garden community and scholars internationally.

I would also like to take this opportunity to make a general call to bring garden archives together at the garden. There are many valuable resources that have been collected and stored throughout the Japanese garden community. A secure library shelf has been established at the garden to store these archives, so it is now possible to return items to community safekeeping and make them available to everyone.

Thank you,

Mark Bourne