The Art of the Japanese Garden. David Young

Hiraihō Hill at Ritsurin Kōen, Takamatsu. The dark green reflection of the pine trees gives the South Pond a feeling of yūgen—a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe.

      Hills and Flatlands

      Japanese gardens are most famous for their depiction of rugged mountain scenery complete with rocky streams and dramatic waterfalls. Sometimes, however, a more gentle landscape is achieved through the use of flowing hills interspersed with lowlands. Hills can be covered with grass or planted with pine trees. They are frequently constructed on islands to provide a contrast to the flatness of the surrounding pond or to block a view of part of the pond. Hills also offer elevated spots for viewing the rest of the garden or as a location for a pavilion. A particularly interesting device, sometimes used in karesansui gardens, is to use trimmed bushes to create abstract shapes suggestive of hills.

      Flatlands include plains, fields or marshes where the beauty of grasses and water plants is emphasized. The use of flatlands is particularly prominent in large stroll gardens such as Shūgakuin Detached Palace near Kyoto.

      Kōrakuen Garden in Okayama, one of the three most famous stroll gardens in Japan, notable for its grassy expanses.

      Pavilions and Other Structures

      Garden structures include pavilions, teahouses, privies and small ornamental features such as water wheels. Pavilions are most commonly found in tea ceremony and large stroll gardens. In tea roji, they are used as places to sit while waiting for the tea master to summon guests to the tea ceremony. In stroll gardens, they are used as resting places. The latter type of pavilion usually has a good view of the surrounding scenery.

      Teahouses and associated privies also are most commonly located in tea roji and large stroll gardens. Their function is the same in either location. Teahouses, which can be small and austere or large and comfortable, are the site of formal tea ceremonies. Associated privies were, at one time, used by guests but are today purely ornamental.

      Ornamental features such as water wheels, wisteria arbors and wells are found in various types of Japanese gardens where their basic function is to add interest by providing a contrast with the more natural surroundings. The layering of various elements also lends depth to a garden.

      Framing Devices

      When a garden is adjacent to a main building, verandas and views of the garden from the inside should be considered as well. Verandas are transitional devices between a building and the garden that make the movement of eye and body from indoors to outdoors less abrupt. In contemplation gardens, a veranda is a place to sit and view the garden. It completes the frame provided by walls on the other three sides of the garden. Windows and openings created by sliding doors are frequently used as framing devices through which a garden can be viewed from the inside. The shape of the frame can be used to complement the outdoor scene and amplify the feeling that one is viewing a work of art.

       PAVILIONS

      Pavilions are structures where one can rest, view the moon or wait for a tea ceremony to begin. Located on hills, islands or on the edges of a pond, they can range from the simplest of shapes, such as an “umbrella roof” on a pole, to elaborate edifices with raised floors and tatami mats.

      umbrella type

      summer house type

      hexagonal type

      enclosed type

      machiai (covered arbor where one waits for a tea ceremony to begin)

      matted type

FLORA AND FAUNA

      The first gardens in Japan were graveled plots symbolizing sacred space. In the Heian Period, new traditions from China introduced gardens in which ponds and stone compositions provided the basic structure. Trees, bushes and flowers were also introduced but because plants, compared to rocks, are impermanent, they were regarded as decorative elements. In later periods, trees and shrubs came to be regarded as structural elements, as they are today.

      A vertical triangle composed of various kinds of vegetation, with a pine tree at the apex, from the 1735 edition of the gardening manual Tsukiyama Teizōden (Building Mountains and Making Gardens).

      Types of Vegetation

      Between the Heian and Edo periods, various practices were adopted regarding plant usage. For example, in “wet” landscape gardens, trees and grasses were employed to create shorelines, rolling hills and meadows, whereas in “dry” landscape gardens, vegetation was kept to a minimum so as not to dwarf the mountains and streams represented by rocks and gravel. The most popular plants have always been those indigenous to the area.

      Of the many plants available for use, trees are the most important. A tree usually provides the focal point of a composition, with other plants used as accents. Four types of trees are employed in Japanese gardens: broad leaf evergreens, deciduous trees, needle leaf trees and bamboo. Most common broad leaf evergreens include camellia, azalea, Japanese fatsia (yatsude), pasania and oak. Deciduous trees include plum, cherry, maple, willow, gingko and zelkova. Commonly used needle leaf trees include pine, Japanese cypress (hinoki), Japanese cedar or cryptomeria (sugi) and fir. Around fifteen species of bamboo, including bamboo grass, are found in Japan. Pines are particularly important because they are relatively easy to train into interesting shapes. Bamboo is used with caution as it spreads quickly and can rapidly take over a garden.

      Like rocks, trees are usually arranged in triangular or pyramidal compositions to create an asymmetrical balance of forces. Different species are normally planted together to provide contrast in form and color. For example, a twisted pine goes well with a weeping willow. Care is taken to plant trees in areas similar to where they would grow in nature. Thus, trees that normally grow on mountain slopes are not planted in flatlands.

      Of the many types of bamboo that grow in Japan, some are not suitable as they become too large. The three species shown here are favored because of their relatively small size and attractive stem colors. From left to right:

      Phyllostachys aurea Golden Bamboo (Hoteichiku)

      Phyllostachys bambusoides “Castillon” Variegated Running Bamboo (Kinmeichiku)

      Phyllostachys nigra Black Bamboo (Kurochiku)

      Clipped shrubs became common in Momoyama Period karesansui gardens, particularly in conjunction with gravel. Shrubs such as junipers and azaleas are usually trimmed into rounded shapes and are sometimes grouped in clusters to suggest hills. More infrequently they are used to create geometric shapes or artifacts such as boats. Unless this is done with great skill, the result can look artificial. Trees and shrubs are often planted near or overhanging stone objects such as lanterns, wells and basins. This provides an interesting contrast and helps blend human artifacts into the scenery.

      Moss is particularly suited to Japan’s humid temperate climate. Over a hundred varieties of moss can be found in Saihōji (Kyoto’s Moss Temple) alone. The use of grass to create lawns began in