Other Japanese gardens-1  

Introduction

Our own Japanese garden reflects our profound interest and the knowledge we have acquired over the years. To a considerable extent we have gained this knowledge from written texts (See “More” for a selection of our favourites). But in addition we have learned a lot from visiting all kinds of gardens in Japan and from studying them. As we would like to share this experience, we will tell you something about the gardens which have special value and significance for us. Photos we took ourselves will illustrate the story. At the end you’ll find two Japanese gardens in the Netherlands. 

A story about Japanese Gardens can be structured in very different ways. We will follow history on the whole but we’ll use distinguishing features of form or style as well. Because of that sometimes gardens from different periods are grouped together, sometimes a garden will be mentioned more than once. If we want to refer to a picture somewhere else in the story, there will be a hyperlink. 

The list of treated gardens.

(The garden, temple or shrine is in Kyōto, unless a place-name is mentioned.

The numbers in the table refer to Other Japanese Gardens-1/6.)

 

 

 

The beginning 

Japan is a country adorned by considerable natural beauty: mountains, waterfalls, woods, impressive coastlines, the Inland Sea with picturesque islands. The inhabitants value their country tremendously. From the beginning elements from nature have been significant in the art of making gardens. Not in the last place since certain elements have a religious connotation. In many areas large boulders, trees and waterfalls are the object of worship, because they are linked with the kami, the spirits who are believed to govern the natural world. Such rocks and trees are set apart by means of a straw rope. One of the oldest examples of this is Achi-Jinja, a Shintō sanctuary, in Kurashiki. Reputedly the large rocks still standing there were already considered sacred in prehistoric times. 

In the earliest periods of which we know something a ceremonial space was made south to the palaces. Situated between the main building and two galleries it was called the nantei, i.e. south garden or southern court. They covered this flat area with sand or gravel and used it to receive chieftains and other highly placed persons, but also for religious ceremonies and for playing games. The photos below are of the imperial palace at Kyōto, Gosho, and of the temple Ninna-ji Monzeki. Of a Monzeki temple originally the head-priest was a descendant of the imperial family, which makes the nantei understandable. It is also possible that the nantei of Ninna-ji is a remnant from the time the temple still was an imperial palace; the palace was built on this location in 888. The present temple and garden date from the 17^th century. 

The nantei continues to play a role as a space between a building and its garden.

 

Other themes are the pebble or cobble beaches and the rocky shores of brooks and rivers. Moraine fields also are powerful natural images, which left their traces in a number of the earliest Japanese gardens.  

 

 

North of Kyōto lies Ōsawa-no-ike, a large pond with an island and some solitary stones. It is the remnant of a large palace from the 9^th century. A beautiful open space that leaves a strong impression. Around 810 emperor Saga ordered to make the pond by damming a small river. On the photo you can see the flat island covered with pebbles. Ponds like this were also made for boating.

 

 

During the past 30 years many excavations were carried out in areas where previously palaces and gardens existed. Sometimes such a place is reconstructed. In Nara is a reconstruction on the grounds of the palaces from the 8^th century: Heijō-kyū Eastern Palace Garden. Pebbles determine the character of the garden here to a great extent. A further example we find in the central part of Byōdō-in in Uji. The famous Phoenix-hall from 1053 is largely surrounded by a pond with pebble beaches. In the pond is an island with pebbles, just as in Ōsawa-no-ike. 

Much later this element was used again. The famous priest and artist Kobori Enshū designed for the retired emperor a palace and garden in Kyōto, in which a pebble beach is a striking feature: Sentō Gosho (1633).

 

Sentō Gosho	Ritsurin.Takamatsu

Another theme is the stream or streamlet. The excavations in Nara have exposed remains of the winding streams about which literature speaks to us. Poetry parties would be held on this kind of streams. Sake-cups on wooden carved mandarin ducks would flow down one after another. The poets in traditional court costumes had to make impromptu tanka on a given theme. When and how much sake they were allowed to drink is a matter on which opinions differ.
These little streams can be seen in Nara and in Jōnan-gū, which is a new garden in accordance with old plans. But there are more gardens, from different periods, with attractive streams. For instance: Ginkaku-ji.
In our own garden we have let us inspire by a stream we saw in Kyōto in Kikokutei: very simple and charming.  

 

The last element we mention here is called in Japanese ikedori, or shakkei. Ikedori means literally to catch alive, shakkei means borrowed scenery. The intention is, that something which is outside the garden is taken into the composition in the garden. That is something different from having “just” a nice view. The catch can be done by framing the view  with the aid of the vertical and horizontal lines of a building, with hedges, tree trunks, or with the sky. Our first example is Raikyū-ji in Takahashi. The view at the mountain Atago is emphasized by the planting which supports the lines of the view.
One could say that in Shūgakuin Rikyū the view has been caught by the sky.
Very famous was Jikō-in near Nara with a view from the building over a hedge on the Yamato Plain. But that region is so industrialized and infested with high-voltage cables that the former attraction is almost extinct. (In Japan the electricity grid is overhead because of the threat of earthquakes.)
One of the most beautiful examples, Entsū-ji, is in danger of losing its view by intended high-rise buildings. That would be really a great loss. The view on the mountain Hiei is very cleverly intensified by a hedge and the trunks of trees. It was not allowed to take photos but the picture is still in our mind. Here as illustration the leaflet of the temple with a view from within the building.  

 

The Heian period (794-1185) 

In 794 the Japanese built a new capital in Heian-kyō (afterwards Kyōto). That brought along a great activity, also in the field of the construction of gardens. An early example is the garden of the temple Jōruri-ji, between Kyōto and Nara. A distinctive feature is the large pond with one elongated island, usually connected to the shore by one or two bridges. Jōruri-ji can serve as well as an example of pebble beaches as of a typical Heian period garden. Artlessness and unpretentiousness is the pervading spirit, and large boulders are sparingly used. How rocks had to be placed was the object of careful study, as can be read in the old annals like the Sakutei-ki, literally: text about the making of gardens. When we were there in 2003 the pebble beaches were overgrown by grasses and irises. The garden’s beauty remained unaffected. It is a harmonious place in very quiet surroundings. Shintō and Buddhism go together peacefully. And the Buddha’s Amidha in the temple and Yakushi in the east face each other over the pond.  

 

A large pond is also dominating the scene in Hōkongō-in and Ryōan-ji, both from the 12^th century. In and around the pond of Hōkongō-in are large rocks, mainly giving a horizontal effect. There are pebbles again but not so much. The pond in the lowest garden, Kyōyō-chi, of Ryōan-ji gives a very different impression: extensive, few stones and magnificently situated at the foot of a mountain slope. A Benten-island with a small shrine devoted to the Shintō deity of music and other arts, lies in the middle. 

 

             

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