What is the meaning of Japanese garden design?
Japanese Symbolism in Garden Design. Hear both sides of the story on symbolism in Japanese gardens. The main object of Japanese gardens is to copy the beauty of nature and to bring it home. There is little space in Japan. It is not possible for the average Japanese family to have a large garden. They adapted to be able to enjoy nature.
Do You Believe in the symbolism of Japanese gardens?
One viewpoint is that symbolism has really been blown out of proportion and detracts from the main object of Japanese gardens, i.e. to copy the beauty of nature. Every culture has their symbols, myths, urban legends, etc. Some people believe in it, others don’t.
What do Japanese gardens look like?
Japanese gardens always have water, either a pond or stream, or, in the dry rock garden, represented by white sand. In Buddhist symbolism, water and stone are the yin and yang, two opposites that complement and complete each other.
What does the garden at Ryōan-ji symbolize?
There have been many debates about what the rocks are supposed to represent, but, as garden historian Gunter Nitschke wrote, "The garden at Ryōan-ji does not symbolize. It does not have the value of representing any natural beauty that can be found in the world, real or mythical.
History of Japanese Gardens
Visiting a Japanese garden is a unique experience. Unlike a normal garden which is solely a celebration of nature, the Japanese garden is infused with history, art, and spirituality. Many of the historic gardens that you can visit in Japan are hundreds or even thousands of years old. These gardens are built with durability in mind.
Elements of the Japanese Garden
Before we discuss the different types of Japanese gardens, we must first take a look at all the elements that can be found in these gardens. Some Japanese garden styles only feature a couple of elements, whilst others can have a mixture of all the elements.
Types of Japanese Gardens
These are by far the most popular gardens associated with Japan. They can also be referred to as zen gardens, dry gardens, or rock gardens. They use sand or gravel, arranged in flowing patterns that represent water. The Zen garden symbolizes simplicity, its main purpose is to induce meditation or simply tranquillity.
Plants to Use in Japanese Gardens
As we already mentioned, it is always best to use native plants in any area. Nonetheless, if you live in an area with a climate similar to Japan, you can use traditional Japanese plants:
How to Design a Japanese Garden
Now that you know a few key features and plants that you can use to create a beautiful Japanese garden, it’s time to learn more about designing it. How you design the garden depends on the garden style that you choose. However, following a few simple steps will simplify this process for you.
What is a traditional Japanese garden?
Japanese gardens (日本庭園, nihon teien) are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape.
Where did Japanese gardens originate?
Japanese gardens first appeared on the island of Honshu, the large central island of Japan. Their aesthetic was influenced by the distinct characteristics of the Honshu landscape: rugged volcanic peaks, narrow valleys, mountain streams with waterfalls and cascades, lakes, and beaches of small stones. They were also influenced by the rich variety of ...
What is the first book of Japanese garden keeping?
The first known book on the art of the Japanese garden, the Sakuteiki ( Records of Garden Keeping ), written in the 11th century, said: It is a good omen to make the stream arrive from the east, to enter the garden, pass under the house, and then leave from the southeast.
What is the name of the mountain in Japan?
In Japan, the five islands of the Chinese legend became one island, called Horai-zen, or Mount Horai. Replicas of this legendary mountain, the symbol of a perfect world, are a common feature of Japanese gardens, as are rocks representing turtles and cranes.
Why do Japanese garden designers use old materials?
Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden designers to suggest an ancient and faraway natural landscape, and to express the fragility of existence as well as time's unstoppable advance. Ancient Japanese art inspired past garden designers.
When did Buddhism come to Japan?
In or around 552, Buddhism was officially installed from China, via Korea, into Japan. Between 600 and 612, the Japanese Emperor sent four legations to the Court of the Chinese Sui Dynasty. Between 630 and 838, the Japanese court sent fifteen more legations to the court of the Tang Dynasty.
When were Japanese gardens first introduced?
The ideas central to Japanese gardens were first introduced to Japan during the Asuka period ( c. 6th to 7th century ). Japanese merchants witnessed the gardens that were being built in China and brought many of the Chinese gardening techniques and styles back home.
What is the Japanese garden?
The Japanese Garden – Concept And Design Elements. The Japanese garden is an integral part of Japanese culture, and gardening is seen as an activity to achieve not only a beautiful garden but also to achieve a feeling of peace and harmony. This may be the only calming aspect that a person has in their daily, hectic lives.
What are the most important aspects of Japanese gardens?
One of the most important and intriguing aspects of Japanese gardens is the use of water . Ponds, streams, and waterfalls all have a place in many traditional gardens. Even in karesansui, or “dry gardens,” sand and pebbles are raked to represent water moving around islands.
What is the meaning of the Chaniwa garden?
Chaniwa gardens are designed for the tea ceremony. In this ceremony, called the sado, the drinking of tea symbolizes the recognition that every human encounter is a singular and unique occasion that never can or will recur again exactly. In many cases, the chaniwa is not really a full-fledged garden like the other types, but rather a narrow path of stepping stones leading up to the chashitsu, or tea room. The placement of the stepping stones that lead to the main tea room is a hallmark feature of this garden type. Chaniwa gardens also feature stone lanterns and stone water basins, called tsukubai , where guests purify themselves before partaking in the tea ceremony.
How are Karesansui gardens influenced by Zen?
Karesansui gardens reproduce natural landscapes in a more abstract way by using stones, gravel, sand and sometimes a few patches of moss for representing mountains, islands, boats, and, perhaps most importantly, bodies of moving water. Karesansui gardens are strongly influenced by Zen garden Buddhism and used for meditation: they are viewing gardens, not intended to be entered but contemplated from a set location. The use of sand or gravel to symbolize water is central to the karesansui garden, the raking of gravel round stones resembling the ripples caused by rocks in the water.
Why are stones important to Japanese gardens?
The water must also flow from east to west, just as the sun rises and sets. Stones are a critical piece of the garden because they act as the peace element.
How many types of Japanese gardens are there?
There are three traditional types of Japanese gardens.
Where is the rock garden in Japan?
One of the most famous rock gardens in Japan is in Kyoto, at the Ryoanji temple. This garden is thirty meters long and ten meters wide and contains no plants.
Why are Japanese gardens important?
The main object of Japanese gardens is to copy the beauty of nature and to bring it home. There is little space in Japan. It is not possible for the average Japanese family to have a large garden. They adapted to be able to enjoy nature. This adaptation is most obvious in the art of Bonsai. This is the art of cultivating miniature trees.
Why do Japanese gardeners use natural materials?
Although the garden is small, it can still have a beautiful tree! The inventive Japanese have used other natural materials to represent objects that would just be too large for their gardens. This practice most probably led to the mystique of Japanese symbolism in gardening.
What do the stripes and stars represent?
Some people believe in it, others don’t. A little bit of symbolism could be healthy, e.g. the Stripes and Stars symbolize liberty and freedom to patriotic Americans, the sun representing god, unified the ancient Egyptians, etc. Symbolism is used in Japanese garden design.
What are the elements of Japanese gardens?
Garden Elements. Japanese gardens utilize elements such as ponds, streams, islands and hills to create miniature reproductions of natural scenery. The following are some of the most commonly employed elements:
What is the significance of stones in Japanese culture?
Since ancient times, stones have played an important role in Japanese culture. In Shinto, prominent large stones are worshiped as kami, while gravel was used to designate sacred grounds, as seen at some ancient shrines such as the Ise Shrines or Kyoto 's Kamigamo Shrine.
What do stones represent in a garden?
In today's gardens, large stones symbolize mountains and hills, set decorative accents and serve as the building material for bridges and pathways. Smaller rocks and gravel are used to line ponds and streams. Meanwhile, dry gardens are comprised entirely of stones, with larger stones symbolizing mountains, islands and waterfalls, ...
What are the elements of a garden?
Ponds, Streams and Waterfalls. Ponds are a central element of most gardens and often represent real or mythical lakes or seas. Sometimes they provide a habitat for carps (koi) which introduce additional color and life to the garden. In dry gardens, ponds, streams and waterfalls are symbolized by raked gravel, sand and upright stones.
What are the hills in the Edo period?
Larger gardens, especially the strolling gardens of the Edo Period, make use of large man made hills . The hills may represent real or mythical mountains, and some can be ascended and have a viewpoint from where visitors are treated to a panoramic view out over the garden.
What is a pond used for?
In recreational types of gardens, ponds can be used for boating or enjoyment from pavilions built out over the water or from plazas and embankments on shore, which often served as the site for aristocratic poetry or moon viewing parties in past centuries.
What is a borrowed landscape?
Borrowed Scenery. Borrowed scenery (shakkei) is the concept of integrating the background landscape outside the garden into the design of the garden. Both, natural objects such as mountains and hills and man made structures such as castles, can be used as borrowed scenery. In modern times, skyscrapers have become a (usually) unintentional borrowed ...
What is balance in Japanese gardens?
Balance is a key part of the Japanese garden as well. Recreating a large "landscape" even in a small space is something that is really neat. Rocks can present a whole mountain, and a small pool can "become a lake.". Small patches of raked sand can represent an entire ocean.
Where is Anderson Gardens in Illinois?
Rockford , Illinois has Anderson Gardens which is perhaps the premier Japanese Garden in all of the Western hemisphere.
Does Japan have a lot of rain?
As a nation, Japan gets a lot of rainfall. It is not surprising that water is a key element in Japanese gardening. As I mentioned before, even the raking of sand or gravel represents water, such as in the karesansui garden.
What is the feeling of Japanese gardens?
Harmony and peacefulness are felt by visitors to Japanese gardens.
What do rocks represent in Japanese gardens?
Rocks, or ishi, are foundational items in Japanese gardens. They typically represent mountains, but may also symbolize the figure of Buddha, or a gesture of strength and power. At many gardens, the entries are marked by a large stone, as a sign of welcome. Stones figure into the water elements and are sometimes used in forming paths.
What does the Hashi symbolize?
Hashi, or bridges, are constructed in the Zen garden to symbolize a person's journey between the planes of existence, the inner and outer, the multiple dimensions beyond and the place that lies between worlds. Man's unity with nature can be symbolized by his simple walking across a bridge to move from the world of humans into the wider world of all forms and beings. For the visitor to any Japanese garden, the bridge and all other elements present, may simply allow a moment of harmony and appreciation for what is.
What does the bridge symbolize in Zen?
Bridges, or hashi, symbolize the journey between planes, and between worlds. Hashi, or bridges, are constructed in the Zen garden to symbolize a person's journey between the planes of existence, the inner and outer, the multiple dimensions beyond and the place that lies between worlds .
What are the Japanese trees?
Care is given in selecting the plantings, or shokobutsu, for a Japanese garden. Cherry trees, with their delicate pink flowers in spring, are a well-loved feature tree. Also often found are plum trees, different pines and bamboo. The sound of wind in bamboo and its motion teach the Zen principle of the "empty heart," providing strength ...
Why is water important in Zen?
Water is for purification and cleansing. When peering at or walking beside a pond in a Zen garden, the stillness and empty space are important for reflection in a literal sense. Meditation is the literal meaning of the word Zen, and water is a superb conduit for such practice. Falls have several symbolic overtures, ...
What is Shakkei in gardening?
To support the interconnectedness of all in existence, shakkei, or borrowing pre-existing scenery, is applied. The garden itself takes up a certain amount of land, but beyond its perimeter there might be hills or valleys, or something to frame with plants or structures within the garden's walls.
Overview
Garden elements
Japanese gardens are distinctive in their symbolism of nature, with traditional Japanese gardens being very different in style from occidental gardens: "Western gardens are typically optimised for visual appeal while Japanese gardens are modelled with spiritual and philosophical ideas in mind." Japanese gardens are conceived as a representation of a natural setting, tying in to Japa…
History
The ideas central to Japanese gardens were first introduced to Japan during the Asuka period (c. 6th to 7th century). Japanese merchants witnessed the gardens that were being built in China and brought many of the Chinese gardening techniques and styles back home.
Japanese gardens first appeared on the island of Honshu, the large central isla…
Aesthetic principles
The early Japanese gardens largely followed the Chinese model, but gradually Japanese gardens developed their own principles and aesthetics. These were spelled out by a series of landscape gardening manuals, beginning with Sakuteiki ("Records of Garden Making") in the Heian Period (794–1185). The principles of sacred gardens, such as the gardens of Zen Buddhist temples, were different from those of pleasure or promenade gardens; for example, Zen Buddhist gardens wer…
Differences between Japanese and Chinese gardens
Japanese gardens during the Heian period were modeled upon Chinese gardens, but by the Edo period there were distinct differences.
• Architecture: Chinese gardens have buildings in the center of the garden, occupying a large part of the garden space. The buildings are placed next to or over the central body of water. The garden buildings are very elaborate, with much architectural decoration. In later Japanese garde…
Garden styles
The chisen-shoyū-teien ("lake-spring-boat excursion garden") was imported from China during the Heian period (794–1185). It is also called the shinden-zukuri style, after the architectural style of the main building. It featured a large, ornate residence with two long wings reaching south to a large lake and garden. Each wing ended in a pavilion from which guests could enjoy the views of the lake. …
Literature and art of the Japanese garden
The first manual of Japanese gardening was the Sakuteiki ("Records of Garden Making"), probably written in the late eleventh century by Tachibana no Tohshitsuna (1028–1094). Citing even older Chinese sources, it explains how to organize the garden, from the placement of rocks and streams to the correct depth of ponds and height of cascades. While it was based on earlier Chinese …
Noteworthy Japanese gardens
The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the government of Japan designates the most notable of the nation's scenic beauty as Special Places of Scenic Beauty, under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. As of March 2007, 29 sites are listed, more than a half of which are Japanese gardens (boldface entries specify World Heritage Sites):