The British have loved Japanese gardens since 1910, when the Japan-British exhibition brought eight million people to London to thrill at show gardens of miniature Mount Fujis and blazing acer, or maple, trees. In the subsequent craze for Japanese gardens, the English aristocracy shipped boulders, trees and entire buildings from the Far East to fill their acres with tea houses, ornamental bridges and impeccably raked gravel. More than a hundred years on, Japanese gardens continue to enthrall us and have never felt more contemporary. Often featuring a simple palette of peaceful greens, rocks, gravel and water with meandering paths and secluded spaces to sit quietly, they are places for calm and contemplation,…