The Japanese tea-ceremony, or Way of Tea, is one of the most profound manifestations of mindfulness. The ceremony, with its roots in Zen Buddhism, dates as far back as the 15th century and takes place within a traditional tea-ceremony room. Here, in a fully updated edition of 'New Zen', are 40 outstanding examples of contemporary Japanese tea rooms, many located within private homes.

Mindfulness Travel Japan is the perfect travel guide to Japan when you need to breathe, pause, focus and relax. Are you looking to step back from the stress of daily life on your next holiday? In this guide, Japan travel connoisseurs Steve Wide and Michelle Mackintosh offer a selection of some of the most relaxing and mindful destinations and experiences across Japan, so you can just exist in the here and now. Covering a total of 100 mindful travel experiences, you can enjoy forests carpeted in moss, plant-based food banquets or long walks in zen gardens, losing yourself in Japan's beauty and nature. Soak in medicinal onsen waters, or have your whole body covered in a hot-sand bath, stay overnight in a traditional ryokan or zen temple. Walk the paths of philosophers and poets and hike the paths of religious pilgrims. Observe the opening of cherry blossoms, the changing of the leaves or the first flurries of snow. Take a class in calligraphy or learn the art of meditation, spend a day bicycling around ancient temples and shrines. Learn about the different varieties of Japanese tea and the art of tea ceremony. Mindfulness Travel Japan will show you how to be your best self not just on holiday, but in life.

Zen Buddhist priest Shunmyo Masuno understands that today's busy world leaves little time or space for self-reflection, but that a garden--even in the most urban of spaces--can provide some respite. In his words, "The garden is a special spiritual place where the mind dwells." With this in mind, Masuno has designed scores of spectacular Japanese gardens and landscapes with the aim of helping people achieve a balanced life in the 21st century. This book explores Masuno's design process and ideas, which are integral to his daily Zen training and teachings. It features 15 unique gardens and contemplative landscapes completed in six countries over as many years--all thoughtfully described and documented in full-color photos and drawings. Readers will also find insights on Masuno's philosophy of garden design and a conversation between the designer and famed architect Terunobu Fujimori. Zen Garden Design provides an in-depth examination of Masuno's gardens and landscapes--not just as beautiful spaces, but as places for meditation and contemplation.

Learn to create seamless designs backed by a responsible understanding of the human mind. This book examines how human behavior can be used to integrate your product design into lifestyle, rather than interrupt it, and make decisions for the good of those that are using your product. Mindful Design introduces the areas of brain science that matter to designers, and passionately explains how those areas affect each human’s day-to-day experiences with products and interfaces. You will learn about the neurological aspects and limitations of human vision and perception; about our attachment to harmony and dissonance, such as visual harmony, musical harmony; and about our brain’s propensity towards pattern recognition and how we perceive the world cognitively. In the second half of the book you will focus on the practical application of what you have learned, specific to interaction and interface design. Real-world examples are used throughout so that you can really see how design is impacting our everyday digital experience. Design is a responsibility, but not enough designers understand the human mind or the process of thought. This book explores the key factors involved and shows you how to make the right design choices. What You'll Learn Review how attention and distraction work and the cost of attentional switching Use Gestalt principles to communicate visual grouping Ensure your underlying models make sense to your audience Use time, progression, and transition to create a composition Carefully examine controlling behavior through reductionist and behaviorist motivation concepts Apply the theoretical knowledge to practical, mindful application design Who This Book Is For The primary audience for this book is professional designers who wish to learn more about the human mind and how to apply that to their work. The book is also useful for design-focussed product owners and startup founders who wish to apply ethical thinking to a team, or when bootstrapping their products. The secondary audience is design students who are either studying a ‘traditional’ visual design course, or a UX/interaction design course who have a desire to learn how they might be able to apply mindful design to their early careers. Finally, a tertiary audience for this book would be tutors involved in teaching design, or peripheral, courses who may wish to incorporate its teachings into their lectures, workshops or seminars.

Learn the Japanese secrets to finding calm, contentment and happiness With its roots in Buddhist thinking, Japanese culture is known for its sincere and mindful approach to life. From ikigai (finding your purpose) to ikebana (the art of flower arranging), Japanese ideas offer the wider world the promise of peacefulness and inspiration. Discover these calming insights and more inside this beautiful volume. Including tips on mindfulness, finding contentment, and doing more with less, this book will be your guide to the land of the rising sun, and help you to live a rich, joyful and thoughtful life.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up meets Nudge in this irresistible design method from Japan. We are living in a time when behavioral change is necessary for our health and survival. Yet we find it exceedingly difficult to transform our own habits, let alone those of other people. Enter Naohiro Matsumura, whose powerful new design method is as astonishingly simple in its logic as it is sophisticated in its psychology. It allows any of us—from UX designers and marketers to concerned citizens and overworked parents—to address challenges in our homes, our public spaces, and our social interactions. As Matsumura shows, a shikake—or “device” in Japanese—is a design that exerts influence on us through subtle nudging, rather than direct command; it encourages a particular behavior without telling its (often unwitting) user the primary purpose of that behavior. For example: • Footprints in a store guide shoppers and keep them socially distant • A basketball hoop placed over a trash can entices children to tidy up their rooms • A symbol of a shrine in a public square encourages respectfulness • A staircase painted to look like piano keys prompts exercise through play Combining traditional Japanese aesthetics with the lessons of behavioral economics, Matsumura reveals how to identify the hidden design cues that already shape our world, and how shikakes can help us confront some of the most pressing challenges of our era, from pandemics to declining civic engagement to climate change and beyond. Mind-bending yet elegant, Shikake presents a tool kit for anyone who wants to create their own mindful designs, for the delight and betterment of us all.

Gain some new ideas along with the principles and history of Japanese stone gardening with this useful and beautiful garden design book. Japanese Stone Gardens provides a comprehensive introduction to the powerful mystique and dynamism of the Japanese stone garden—from their earliest use as props in animistic rituals, to their appropriation by Zen monks and priests to create settings conducive to contemplation and finally to their contemporary uses and meaning. With insightful text and abundant imagery, this book reveals the hidden order of stone gardens and in the process heightens the enthusiast's appreciation of them. The Japanese stone garden is an art form recognized around the globe. These meditative gardens provide tranquil settings, where visitors can shed the burdens and stresses of modern existence, satisfy an age-old yearning for solitude and repose, and experience the restorative power of art and nature. For this reason, the value of the Japanese stone garden today is arguably even greater than when many of them were created. Fifteen gardens are featured in this book: some well known, such as the famous temple gardens of Kyoto, others less so, among them gardens spread through the south of Honshu Island and the southern islands of Shikoku and Kyushu and in faraway Okinawa.

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Super Potato Design is the first full-length book to present the work and conceptual ideas of the internationally renowned Japanese design firm Super Potato, founded by Takashi Sugimoto. Super Potato's powerful designs for the interiors of restaurants, shops and hotels, as well as Takashi Sugimoto's designs for tea ceremony spaces and utensils, are richly complex compositions of materials which create simple, strong spaces. Using traditional Japanese building materials such as bamboo, wood, and stone, but crating original yet timeless spaces, Super Potato's designs avoid specific stylistic characterizations and short-lived fashion. By finding contemporary expression for important concepts present in traditional Japan and combining materials in unexpected ways to create exciting spaces, Super Potato's work has had a significant impact on interior design in Japan and throughout Asia. Super Potato Design is generously illustrated with 320 full-color photographs by the respected Japanese photographer Yoshio Shiratori, who has recorded Super Potatos projects since the firm's conception in 1973. Architect and Japan scholar Mira Locher introduces the ideas and influences of Takashi Sugimoto, the founder and principle designer of Super Potato, and provides a thorough explanation of each project. Architectural drawings further describe the projects. A forward by Tadao Anso, interviews between Takashi Sugimoto and architect Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama, and also graphic designer Kenya Hara, explore the ideas relevant to Japanese designers today. A list of the Complete Works of Super Potato rounds off the book.