Beauty is in the graceful balance of presence and absence, the dance and sway of the wind.

The garden is not the objects placed, but the absence described by these objects.

This absence is not a blank void, but a positive openness: the realm inhabited by wind.

And so while the work of construction is in the placement of objects, the work of design is in the creation of absence – the crafting of the wind.

There are two ways to understand the garden: it is possible to concentrate on the things that are there; it is also possible understand the space between these things. In the Japanese garden, both presence and absence become tools for the designer, and both are equally important.