Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto （Leslie Buck）

At thirty-five, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning from one of the most storied landscaping companies in Kyoto. Cutting Back recounts Buck’s bold journey and the revelations she has along the way.
 
During her apprenticeship in Japan, she learns that the best Kyoto gardens look so natural they appear untouched by human hands, even though her crew spends hours meticulously cleaning every pebble in the streams. She is taught how to bring nature’s essence into a garden scene, how to design with native plants, and how to subtly direct a visitor through a landscape. But she learns the most important lessons from her fellow gardeners: how to balance strength with grace, seriousness with humor, and technique with heart.
 
Leslie Buck holds a fine arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, attended the School of Fine Arts in Bordeaux, France, and studied horticulture at Merritt College, where she met her mentor Dennis Makishima, a world-renowned pruning instructor and bonsai artist. Leslie has worked, taught, and volunteered in hundreds of private landscapes as well as dozens of public gardens, including Portland Japanese Garden, Hakone Japanese Garden, and Tassajara Zen Center. Leslie studied in Kyoto for three seasons with Uetoh Zoen, one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed landscape companies in Japan. Her time in Japan became the subject of her memoir, Cutting Back—a story full of heart and humor.