Rock star
Zen priest Shunmyo Masuno designs sublime gardens around the world and the man of many hats has brought his concept of minimalist beauty to Sheung Wan, writes Charmaine Chan
Shunmyo Masuno’s business card is a keeper. Although printed on flimsy white paper of the sort you’d expect from a coin-operated machine, his is probably the only name card in the world that reads: “Zen priest, landscape architect, professor”.
The order of profession, however, does not indicate tapering commitment.
It’s “full-time, full-time, fulltime”, he says, laughing at the incongruity of his spiritual-cum- secular-cum-academic life.
Then there’s his staging of rock shows.
One of Japan’s leading landscape designers, with 50-plus gardens to his name and a studio famous for its contemporary take on centuries-old Zen garden concepts, Masuno, 61, was in Hong Kong last month to advise on the artful placement of five boulders, all shipped from his home country to be shown at a joint exhibition called “Serenity Above”. Also featuring ink paintings by Shanghai-born, United States-based artist Zheng Chongbin, the exhibition promises to turn the gallery in Grand Millennium Plaza’s Cosco Tower into an “oasis of peacefulness”.
That aim, of instilling calm, inviting introspection and fostering awareness, is achieved in spades at Masuno’s sole Japanese garden in Hong Kong, Sanshintei, completed in 2007 at the One Kowloon office building in Kowloon Bay.