At The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio worked in collaboration with Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane to create Tenshin-en, “The Garden of the Heart of Heaven,” an award-winning Japanese garden. This quarter-acre karesansui (dry landscape) garden features a massive cypress gateway, two hundred and fifty stones, bridges, islands, and plantings around a raked gravel “sea.” Traditional Japanese stone lanterns, a pagoda, and a water basin are focal elements, viewed from the three cypress benches that sit on a stone terrace.

Photography

Susan Teare (2016-present)
Department of Photographic Services, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (pre-2016)

Collaborators

Japanese Landscape Consultant: Kinsaku Nakane

Featured In

Japanese Garden, Tenshin-en: The Garden of the Heart of Heaven,  Online Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Tenshin-en: A Japanese Garden at Boston’s Museum of Fine ArtsArnoldia article by Julie Moir Messervy.
Renovating Tenshin-en, The Garden of the Heart of Heaven, JMMDS Blog Post.
Tenshin-en, The Garden of the Heart of Heaven, Book by Julie Moir Messervy and Kinsaku Nakane.