"I had to come to Japan, to sit in a garden and discover something of Japanese culture, in order to write the history of my hometown," Ciaran Murray said.
This intriguing statement encapsulates a remarkable study that delves into "18th-century landscape, literature, art, architecture, philosophy, politics, science and religion." Murray said his "return to nature involved all these things. The garden is a miniature universe."
His hometown was Carlow in Ireland.