Philatelic document - France-Japan joint issue

The art of the garden is inseparable from the representation of the world that underlies it. And, in Japan as in France, it reflects the essence of the culture that produces it. A stroll through the garden of Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion temple on the outskirts of Kyoto, is enough to perceive the restraint of the gesture that presided over its design, the role of the layering of planes and perspectives, the interplay of concealment and the gradual revelation of elements, the dialogue of voids, solids, vegetation and water, symbol of purification, with the buildings. Ginkaku-ji (The Silver Pavilion) was built by order of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, eighth shogun of the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Inspired by Zen Buddhism, the garden emphasizes the expression of beauty through calm and serenity, inviting meditation. It features the "Ginshadan", an expanse of white sand modelled in tiers to represent waves, and the "Kôgetsudai", a truncated cone of white sand. In 1994, its historic value was recognized and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As for Vaux-le-Vicomte, it embodies another tradition, another conception of nature and its magnificence. Perspective doesn't play with illusion, it imposes itself with geometric rigor, drawing embroideries of shrubs, pruning, cutting, organizing terraces, playing with water in basins, as was done in Renaissance Italy, symbolizing man's rationality and power, his manifest destiny that determines the social order. Far from blending into nature, the buildings impose themselves on it. At Vaux, Louis XIV's superintendent of finances, Nicolas Fouquet, invited the greatest names in classicism, notably the gardener Le Nôtre, who also designed the gardens at Versailles, to create one of his most brilliant creations.

Timbres (offset) : Création Manon Diemer d’après photos : Le château de Vaux-le-Vicomte © Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Document philatélique : Mise en page Emmanuel Vedrenne. Texte : Antoine Vigne.