Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto

by Leslie Buck

Overview

“An unusual and entertaining memoir.” —New York Times Book Review

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604698046
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/03/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	892 KB

About the Author

Leslie Buck is a garden designer and aesthetic pruner who specializes in natural design in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has over two decades of gardening experience, and a fine art degree from U.C. Berkeley and the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts in France. In 2000, Buck studied with Uetoh Zoen, one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed landscape companies in Japan. She has worked, taught, and volunteered in hundreds of private landscapes and as well as dozens of public gardens including the Portland Japanese Garden, Hakone Japanese Garden, Tassajara Zen Center, and Merritt College.

 

Read an Excerpt

Preface
I am the person you spot up in the tree, dirt smeared across my face. “Is that a large bird up there?” you may wonder. My pruning shears busily clip away as I try to bring out the natural beauty in the tree in my playful, sometimes assertive, sometimes delicate way. The tree, shears, and I are dancing partners under the sun. We’ve been together for decades.

Passersby might step right over my pile, despite the rake I have lain across the sidewalk as a deterrent. Sometimes, without asking, they’ll pick up a branch for their dog and walk on, hoping not to bother me. Or maybe I’ll catch their eye as they walk right under a branch I’m sawing that is about to drop. People are curious about a female pruner high up in the tree, wielding sharp tools. Just as I covet the stylish outfits worn by the women who walk beneath my tree, I believe others want to be like a kid again, up in the tree with me.

This kind of interaction would never take place in Japan, where, starting late in the year 1999, I worked for three long seasons, watching the gardens explode with summer growth, morph overnight into radiant fall colors, and molt their leaves after the first bitter cold days of winter. Owing to their devotion and skills, traditional gardeners are treated like brain surgeons by the Japanese public. Clients and people walking by give them plenty of space, never talking to them unless summoned, so as not to break their concentration or pace. When addressing a gardener in Japan, people first apologize for interrupting, and then speak in reverent tones to the craftsman they know has trained like a star athlete, with much physical effort and years of sacrifice, in order to create over centuries some of the most beautiful gardens in the world.

But I don’t mind if someone asks me a question while I’m up in a tree. I’m naturally friendly, having been born in the heart of the Midwest and raised from a young age in a sleepy California beach town. At the age of nearly thirty-five I went to Japan in pursuit of a gardening apprenticeship. I had to ask permission in person to join the company, to show I was serious, the way others have approached landscaping companies for centuries.

I didn’t always feel daring. I’m an unusual adventurer: more worried than eager, unable to pick up new languages easily, and often getting lost. I’m willing to challenge myself, but my emotions, both anxiety and joy, always play a large role. Still I never let any flaws in my character keep me from going after a dream. My struggles were a gift. They taught me determination, and sometimes humor. In Kyoto I learned to work in silence, to run fast between projects, and to take breaks three times a day, with green tea and snacks. I grew to appreciate how hard I tried rather than how much I succeeded. I discovered a way to feel proud even when I came home dirty and exhausted.

In Kyoto I discovered that 90 percent of the private home gardens of Japan are native; the Kyoto private homes, monasteries, and imperial gardens I worked in were some of the most natural looking gardens I’d ever seen. The miniaturized and overly sheared Japanese gardens I’d expected were surprisingly absent. Most of the gardens were designed and pruned to look so sincere that visitors might think they’d stepped into a piece of forest left behind in the city. One of my coworkers, who once fell asleep in a pine tree, said to me, “Leslie, tell your friends back home that Japanese gardens are as natural as possible.”

I tend to work with serious focus. So I prefer answering inquires when sitting in a garden with a lovely table full of tea and cake nearby. A garden desires to be enjoyed. I love to teach others about my craft, and I enjoy pruning in the garden one day and writing in a café the next. Spending time in nature allows me to ruminate over my writing and ideas. The gardens inspire me and offer a paid workout. The feminine weeping red pine in one of my sixty-year old gardens, or the two girls I always see walking by with their two well-fed boxers in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff, give me an idea for my next chapter.

When I returned from my Japan apprenticeship, I built up my pruning business so I could buy a home and have access to healthcare, two things every long-term hard worker should be able to afford. I joined volunteer pruning projects at nonprofit gardens with the Merritt College Pruning Club to teach others my craft. I continued to learn from classes, conferences, lectures, sketching, and almost thirty years of hands-on garden work.

The way to become a master craftsman in Japan is to practice one’s craft and to teach. One garden craftsman told me that as a hobby he studied ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. When I asked him how long he’d been doing this, he said, “Oh, not very long, only fifteen years. I’m just an amateur.” It requires many years of hands-on experience to fully understand a craft. Japanese craftspeople take their work seriously. I begin my story at one of the first Kyoto gardens I worked in, where the garden craftsmen of Japan began to teach me not only about pride, but about how to find heart in the garden.

Editorial Reviews

…an unusual and entertaining memoir…[Buck] suffers, complains and cries…But she works harder than she ever has before. And she learns—about durability and resilience. She learns to prune trees exquisitely. Most of all, she learns that "an apprentice must…be the good student." Not a bad lesson for any gardener.

The New York Times Book Review - Dominique Browning

An unusual and entertaining memoir . . . . she learns—about durability and resilience. She learns to prune trees exquisitely. Most of all, she learns that ‘an apprentice must . . . be the good student.’ Not a bad lesson for any gardener.” —New York Times Book Review

“Her writings, inevitably, are a reflection on the contrasts between the roles of the gardener in two very different cultures.” —The Washington Post 

“Buck has as good an eye for cultural dissonance as she does for pines that need pruning. . . . This is an absorbing read about the formative interplay of humans, cultures, and gardens.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

“The descriptions of the gardens the author tends while in Japan will transport readers; it is an armchair tourist’s treat to wander the temple gardens as she describes them.” —Library Journal

“Read Cutting Back for insight into Japanese gardening culture, for descriptions of naturalistic Japanese gardens, or if you enjoy travel memoirs.” —NYBG’s Plant Talk

“If you love losing yourself in natural settings, this memoir is definitely for you. . . . the life lessons Buck learns away from her pruning shears will appeal to any reader.” —Bustle

“Leslie Buck’s compelling story bring together three themes—a woman’s journey in life, adaptation to a new and strange culture, and discovery of a career that fulfills through its challenges. The connecting threads are Japanese gardens and gardening. Gardening is both Buck’s profession and a metaphor for Buck’s reflection on her life as a cycle of planting, nourishing, and pruning to achieve rich yet balanced growth. These familiar themes feel fresh in Buck’s light yet sensitive prose that transmits her adventurous spirit yet reflective soul. Japanese gardens have long been recognized as special, almost magical, places that inspire and nourish. Leslie Buck’s memoir gives them a human dimension.” —Kendal H. Brown, author of Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America
 
“Leslie Buck offers a graciously pruned story about learning garden care in Japan, where no-one-telling-you-how leads to intimately discovering for yourself what’s what—a learning that is “entrenched in your body.” Leslie tells her story with charm and good-humor.” —Edward Espe Brown, author of Tassajara Bread Book
 
“Gardening in Japan is traditionally a male-dominated occupation. It is awkward and certainly not easy for Japanese women to enter, let alone a young woman from a foreign country.  Leslie’s strong conviction to learn Japanese pruning enabled her to dive into this uncharted world. Most impressive of all, however, was her bold move to select Uetoh Zoen in Kyoto, one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed landscape companies in Japan, as her host gardener. The “secrets” of Japanese gardening are subtly yet evidently revealed throughout the memoir, in describing such things as the way we handle pine tree branches, and the way we examine and correct the performance of a novice gardener. Her undeterred enthusiasm has opened a new door for her and for her followers.” —Sadafumi Uchiyama, head curator at the Portland Japanese Garden, and third generation Japanese gardener

“She learns to sweep with a twiggy traditional hoki and takes her first steps to becoming a senteishi, or tree pruner.” —The Financial Times

“Told with beautiful, carefully crafted language and a perceptively candid voice. . . . the book’s core is its intuitive appreciation for nature.” —Forward Magazine​

“As much a story of bravery and the challenge of adapting to an unfamiliar culture as it is of horticulture. Anyone contemplating a brave career gamble will learn from it.” —San Francisco Chronicle​

“Informative and inspiring. . . . the book will appeal to both gardeners and non-gardeners. As much as Buck’s story is about Japanese garden aesthetics, it is also about stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance.” —The American Gardener

“This should be on the reading lists of university Japanese studies courses because of its insights into the country’s apprenticeship systems.” —Post Magazine ​

“A fascinating personal account, and not just for gardeners.” —The Irish Garden

“A book based on direct experience and encounter, stemming as much from the heart as from backbreaking toil, aching joints and calloused hands.” —The Japan Times

“Buck is a fine guide…Reading Cutting Back taught my untrained eye to more fully appreciate the complexities of Japanese formal gardens and the folks who are entrusted to maintain them.” —Kyoto Journal
​

“An unusual and entertaining memoir . . . . she learns—about durability and resilience. She learns to prune trees exquisitely. Most of all, she learns that ‘an apprentice must . . . be the good student.’ Not a bad lesson for any gardener.” —New York Times Book Review

“Her writings, inevitably, are a reflection on the contrasts between the roles of the gardener in two very different cultures.” —The Washington Post 

“Buck has as good an eye for cultural dissonance as she does for pines that need pruning. . . . This is an absorbing read about the formative interplay of humans, cultures, and gardens.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

“The descriptions of the gardens the author tends while in Japan will transport readers; it is an armchair tourist’s treat to wander the temple gardens as she describes them.” —Library Journal

“Read Cutting Back for insight into Japanese gardening culture, for descriptions of naturalistic Japanese gardens, or if you enjoy travel memoirs.” —NYBG’s Plant Talk

“If you love losing yourself in natural settings, this memoir is definitely for you. . . . the life lessons Buck learns away from her pruning shears will appeal to any reader.” —Bustle

“Leslie Buck’s compelling story bring together three themes—a woman’s journey in life, adaptation to a new and strange culture, and discovery of a career that fulfills through its challenges. The connecting threads are Japanese gardens and gardening. Gardening is both Buck’s profession and a metaphor for Buck’s reflection on her life as a cycle of planting, nourishing, and pruning to achieve rich yet balanced growth. These familiar themes feel fresh in Buck’s light yet sensitive prose that transmits her adventurous spirit yet reflective soul. Japanese gardens have long been recognized as special, almost magical, places that inspire and nourish. Leslie Buck’s memoir gives them a human dimension.” —Kendal H. Brown, author of Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America
 
“Leslie Buck offers a graciously pruned story about learning garden care in Japan, where no-one-telling-you-how leads to intimately discovering for yourself what’s what—a learning that is “entrenched in your body.” Leslie tells her story with charm and good-humor.” —Edward Espe Brown, author of Tassajara Bread Book
 
“Gardening in Japan is traditionally a male-dominated occupation. It is awkward and certainly not easy for Japanese women to enter, let alone a young woman from a foreign country.  Leslie’s strong conviction to learn Japanese pruning enabled her to dive into this uncharted world. Most impressive of all, however, was her bold move to select Uetoh Zoen in Kyoto, one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed landscape companies in Japan, as her host gardener. The “secrets” of Japanese gardening are subtly yet evidently revealed throughout the memoir, in describing such things as the way we handle pine tree branches, and the way we examine and correct the performance of a novice gardener. Her undeterred enthusiasm has opened a new door for her and for her followers.” —Sadafumi Uchiyama, head curator at the Portland Japanese Garden, and third generation Japanese gardener

“She learns to sweep with a twiggy traditional hoki and takes her first steps to becoming a senteishi, or tree pruner.” —The Financial Times

“Told with beautiful, carefully crafted language and a perceptively candid voice. . . . the book’s core is its intuitive appreciation for nature.” —Forward Magazine​

“As much a story of bravery and the challenge of adapting to an unfamiliar culture as it is of horticulture. Anyone contemplating a brave career gamble will learn from it.” —San Francisco Chronicle​

“Informative and inspiring. . . . the book will appeal to both gardeners and non-gardeners. As much as Buck’s story is about Japanese garden aesthetics, it is also about stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance.” —The American Gardener

“This should be on the reading lists of university Japanese studies courses because of its insights into the country’s apprenticeship systems.” —Post Magazine ​

“A fascinating personal account, and not just for gardeners.” —The Irish Garden

“A book based on direct experience and encounter, stemming as much from the heart as from backbreaking toil, aching joints and calloused hands.” —The Japan Times

“Buck is a fine guide…Reading Cutting Back taught my untrained eye to more fully appreciate the complexities of Japanese formal gardens and the folks who are entrusted to maintain them.” —Kyoto Journal
​

From the Publisher

When Leslie Buck was 35 and running a successful landscaping business in California, she took off for Kyoto for a three-month tree-pruning apprenticeship. It’s a classic fish-out-of-water experience—she barely speaks any Japanese, is the only woman on the crew, and must learn to control her emotions. Narrator Caroline McLaughlin captures Buck’s experience with energy and an appealing voice. She ably expresses Buck’s loneliness, homesickness, exhaustion, and cultural confusion as well as her deep appreciation for the Japanese gardening world. Impressively, she rolls through Japanese names and concepts without hesitation. At first, McLaughlin’s rapid pace seems too quick for the gentle and meticulous nature of Japanese pruning and garden design, but she soon relaxes into her narration. And perhaps that mirrors Buck’s appreciation for the Japanese way. A.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile