A Guide to Japanese Gardens

Japanese gardens or nihon teien in Japanese, are traditional gardens developed during the vegetarian period in Japan, the Asuka (552- 645) and Nara era (710- 794), through the Heian era (794-1185). The gardens also developed during the Kamakura era (1185-1333) that was medieval, Muromachi era (1336-1573) that had Chinese influenced, the sweeping country’s reformation culture, Azuchi- Momoyama period (1573-1603) and the Edo period (1604-1853) characterized by Warring States. In 1868, Edo period was declared over and Japan started the modernization process by ending its 260 year old era of military leadership.

Based on Buddhism influence, ancient Japan emphasized on mimicking nature as natural settings in their homes. The characteristic features of these gardens include ponds, gravel, stones and sand that are arranged formally but tastefully to duplicate nature.

Japanese gardens usually have the following landscapes:

• Hills: Hills represents a mountain on a small hill. Mountain is an important feature in Japanese gardens.
• Grouping: Rocks are usually placed in group that is surrounded by plants.
• Sand/gravel/ stone elements: Sand and gravel are aspects obtained from the real world. This element has to be real instead of being a model. These materials are a characteristic feature of Zen gardens.
• Paths: Paths are an important feature in a garden. They should lead to something beautiful.
• Islands: In a garden, there can be small bridges that reach hills and the hills can be like small islands. Water might be added to emphasize on this feature.
• Openings: The garden allows preset observation points to view scenery and natural elements.
• Dry water: The creative arrangement of platforms, cones and islands gives evidence to Japanese’s “liquid” as an ideal.

There are different types of Japanese gardens.

Garden of Water and Stone is a type of garden that also has plants. This type of a garden has a calm atmosphere, and allows the viewer to recognize the simple and natural beauty through natural elements, meaning and symbolism.

• Japanese Tea garden is meant for experiencing harmony and the spiritual form. The garden is small in size and has stone lanterns and water basins.
• Japanese Zen garden is meant for meditation; calmness and peace of mind. The garden has formal arrangements features such as different types of stones, water and sand.
•  Strolling garden: These are large gardens with walking paths, hills, large trees, ponds, streams and other features. This garden offers beautiful views that keep changing as the user explores along.
• Tropical Osaka garden: This is a garden within a larger garden; Jackson Park in Chicago. This park has beautiful views with sparkling rivers, and with water falling whimsically from hills and rocks. The garden is crossed by many bridges and offers landscapes such as Tea Houses.
• Flat garden/tree and arrangement of the partial view: This is also referred as apartment garden or a borrowed landscape. This garden does not provides open spaces. It contains plants and is seen from a single room although it might be fairly large. Though it may contains of plants only, rocks and sand may be added to provide natural elements.

Japanese gardens easy produce a natural beauty that is caused by simplicity as opposed to complexity. They contain ornately trimmed bushes or overly manicured rows. The meditation gardens take simple beauty focuses taken in nature where trees are not trimmed or manicured. Streams flowing through gardens are allowed to take a naturally winding course instead of being straightened. Water does not need to flow continuously and waterfalls do not need to be loud.

Historically the most adequate time and proper place to get relief from crowded towns is a natural landscaped garden, far from the city. Such a place is Temple Jigoku-der on top of a hill. Depending on the direction the user looks, he or she would see Camellias, Azaleas, Wisterias and Cherry blossoms flowers).

This is a garden in Tokyo started in 1957.Apart from being a typical and typical landscape garden, it has the following features:

• A meditation room: This room is quietly placed nearby.
•  Moon flowers: There are plain moon flowers that are only active at night.
• A circular and linked shaped fence: These features are meant for symbolizing Zen influence besides bordering the garden to prevent butterflies from tearing flowers.
• Skull face: There is stone sign having a face of skull symbolizing the pleasure and wealth of Japanese feudal lord. This stone discourages first impressions and stimulates the visitors for meditation.

Kirishima is also commonly referred as the Garden of Mirei.Itis an ancient garden with twenty four hillocks, without decoration elements such as ornaments, exotic plants or sculptures because plants balance the entire garden).

• The stones are arranged to create natural appearances such as mountains and rivers. The stones also are significant designers of the garden. Some of these stones bear patterns of extremely flaky ornate rocks generated from nearby mountains.
• The irises are colorful at the same time beautiful. Colors of these plants are green, yellow and white.
• They play a great role in the entire view of the garden and have an attractive smell. The fruits produced by this flower are very sweet.

The very different others are blooms of eight strings (Chanomeles) and roses comprising of 297 strains. Other flowers found in the garden are Cornus, Dogwood, Wisterians,Tsurutsuji, azalea, Kuro Mockorange,Karita Icho, Senryo and Knotweeds.

This garden was established in 1954 on year later after Adachi Museum’s house was completed. The garden is proximately 5.25 hectares large and was formerly Bashoen rice paddy.Japarstream flows to its south drawing water from mountains and passing over through a fertile plain with vast family gardens and green fields. There another small brook that extend throughout the Shirakaba’s east and west. Eighty percent of water consumed by the Adachi garden is obtained from this brook.

The garden was created by MittanUnohana with his brother- in law, back in 1950’s and 1960’s respectively Adachi’s greatest desires to paint mountain of elegance is responsibility of Tree of White; a tree put at the foreground offers a beautiful view. This garden peaked to seventh positions in 2009.it enjoys the following features:

• Beautiful pine trees: Unlike other gardens, Adachi garden has trees that are however and yet not common. This garden has elegant and most beautiful pine trees called Saramatsu. Itpines trees were bought at a Kyushu Ureshino nursery in 1973. The biggest has cone diameter of twelve meters.
• Tea and hermitage house, Dry water garden, large stones and a cave: This is also another characteristic of Adachi Garden. Three years later after Adachi had bought pine trees, a tea house by the name Kanko-ken was completed on top of rock platform in the north western corner of this house. This house is used for having a meal on special occasions and for enjoying paintings that do not get displayed during winter when the tree is closed.
• Open countryside view: This is a view that obtains behind the garden contains a character unique to the Adachi with rural beauty with rows of vegetables and smoke rolling down during a cold winter. Apart from the design of the garden, other things such as the companion museum is Kidney shaped it can be the others way round; the garden take a rectangular shape. Though its shape can be changed, both are still harmonious as they also have harmonious relations.

Tsukubai makes an important feature in a strolling garden. It incorporates some the most important principles of Zen Buddhism. In Japanese, Tsukubai means crouch. It a stone basin found in gardens next to tea houses. It is a representation of a wandering monk who could bend to drink water from basin. It plays many important rituals in tea houses. A Tsukubai has the following elements.

• Pail of engagement: Engaged in one of the performances as a first person, usually the guest must make use of water when entering a gate.
• Wholeheartedness: Has subordinate role. The guests get into the garden and rinse their hands giving a wholehearted opportunity for the host to meet his or her guest effectively.
• Cleansing: The water that is within these stones is not carried by rolling dippers but with bamboo arrangement.
• Litigation: It involves a water bit and stone basin tiny that are placed in dark part of a garden.
• Means of Purification: There is purification trough syllable sound or water from a Temple of Zon in Kyoto put to the stone issugiduru and bamboo Kawadokori

Besides the above importance, Tsukubai should be accessed crouching. Descend three steps helps to remind the pilgrim of own challenges and shake some of the worldly distractions besides changing perspective on the way. Tsukubai are found in tea houses in the Western World and is designed to be used standing .

When designing a Japanese garden, it is building a landscape. The following principles should be observed.

• Technique of doing some touches in the landscape to show diversity such as changing levels like the use of stepping stones on hills or constructing mini hills or ponds to be constructed within all flat areas.
• By constructing some clear patters such as curving the pathways or arranging stones in clusters, path will look longer than looked in a flat line.
• Design gardens with variety of colors at different times of the years. This done with the aid of deciduous color foliage and help in selecting plants, flowers with different colors to fit for a professionals garden is concerned.
• Rock arrangement in a garden should be some like one can place huge rocks next to smaller and equally considering the space aspect of landscape feature in a garden.
• A garden with few trees and bushes and the farthest away is a garden with numerous bushes and some trees.
• Mental impressions are as important as the physical impressions is. A garden can be made smaller by the use of stepping-stones as they will give one a mental image of a bigger garden in a smaller space. Planting trees inside the garden avoid those trees near the garden as one would get tilted view about space.
• This is a borrowed landscape that is very common in most Japanese gardens. By incorporating the next-door-neighbor’s yard or common area one would give an appearance of a larger garden.
• The sunlight is an important aspect in the garden. By positioning the garden on the and seating places carefully, an intended impact during a sunrise, sunny or sunset can be achieved thus enhancing viewing.
• Modern and best example of a traditional garden with top boxes, raked sand and rocks at maid’s house should be included in a herb garden.
• This is an experience that involves all senses of a human being. Good view and touch enable one to be closer to nature. Smell can be achieved by planting herbs and garden’s corners should be designed with bistro chairs.

In recent past, Japanese gardens have evolved to show that space does not give a good image but integration of different principles. This is called Modern Zen garden. This type of garden does not require the normal filled ornate features of water or the real plants. Modern Zen garden is unique because:

• It is very similar to eighteenth century friends Mediterranean Garden (Chanomeles).
• It has some of the largest coast cardamom groves along the meandering stream.
• Unlike other gardens, it has the shortest trees. These gives a short canopy and required some additional benches inside and a chair in order to feel comfortable (Adachi, 2005).

When viewing a garden there are various features one would notice. For example, one would imagine lush green plants and flowers that are attractive. Some of the types of plants and flowers you would expect are Sakura, and Wisterias. Iffueling the choice of viewing floral beauty inside Japanese gardens can be witnessed in the following instances:

• They can grow in full sun light provided by winter ditch.
• Are they placed beside or underneath pine or coconut.
• Do they use fog from the near by rocky basin?
• Are the flower petals underneath their feet when it is Spring in Hakone?
• Use of rainwater in a near by Tsukubai (Kawadokori).
• Ability to support heavy or light snow load or even varieties of snow in winter.
• Growth in rocky or dry stream bed in United States?

Other features in a garden such as pine trees, the viewer would determine the height of the plain trees, and how far they are. In addition the viewer would notice the beautiful shapes that some hills take. The viewer would also see the beautiful view torii gates that are usually at side of mountains. Other important features that the viewer would take note are; attractive tea houses like kanko-ken. Others are thatched fish huts suggestive of boat tours in a pond or frequently occurring paths.

While viewing Garden of the Pleasure a magnificent Japanese garden, huge stones with unique characteristics and shape would be attached to the garden to a high. In most cases the stones are not found but typical to other gardens or even mountains. Streams flowing through these gardens often hide multiple little waterfalls, if large ones have been created giving a fun and whimsical appearance. Depending on the type of Japanese garden one might choose to visit, these terms describe the look and feel that user expects to find.

Another feature that one notice especially in Fairy Garden, Shinto Temple Garden, Dry Water Garden or even Zen Garden are dry water beds. These beds are real elements of modern Zen Gardens. A visitor should therefore expect one of the traditional element in such garden. Borrowed Landscape Garden, Tropical Garden and Garden with Mountains and Streams should be expected to offer long steam, forest with mountain and waterfall respectively.

In gardens, typical rocks should be black basalt, hard like husband stone, resembling horizontal human, kneeling human, quiet-human stone besides “2 table” stone. If the rocks were to be found in a mountain, it means that the mountain is playing more roles in the garden. Rocks with crystal points, with metallic points or they are even very flaky should settle Swan stone, hokiawa stone and spraying of sakura stone stylized mountains. Fairy Garden with volcanic spot might be relaxing, but it would offer a trip to central highland basin giving the viewer an idea about Japanese Garden too Ryouan-ji. In a garden of moss, one may expect to get sand or plants. Sand gardens or Zen gardens should be expected to provide some green foliage excluding the smoke from chimney.

Visiting a Japanese garden can be a thrilling and a great experience. A visitor need to decide the right time to visit the garden so as to see the most beautiful garden. For example, during Hanami, a visitor may see beautiful tree shapes. A visitor should also take notes of what he or expect to see before planning the visit. Korean gardens are usually similar to Chinese gardens because it bears similar Idea’s trend but Japanese gardens differs considerably because the emphasize on national acceptance.