Books by Jake Hobson

Jake Hobson draws upon years of experience with Japanese gardens and landscaping. He first traveled to Japan after completing a degree in sculpture at London's Slade School of Fine Arts. Intrigued by the tree pruning techniques he encountered there, Jake spent two years working at a traditional nursery in the countryside outside of Osaka, Japan. He then returned to the U.K. with a desire to apply the skills he learned to non-Japanese plants, settling into a five-year position in architectural plants at West Sussex. A keen observer of the artistry of gardens Jake experiments with how to apply niwaki skills to non-Japanese plants, coupling a love of sculpture and nature, and is particularly interested in how we relate to certain landscapes and elements of nature, and how through the combination of horticulture, sculpture and nature this can be expressed in the garden. In 2004 Jake set up a business - Niwaki, Japanese Garden Tools - with his wife Keiko. A member of the Royal Horticultural Society, the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, and the Japanese Garden Society, he has written for the specialist journal Topiarus and delivers lectures on Japanese pruning techniques throughout the U.K. He resides in Chichester, England.