Japanese Gardens

Looking for some garden inspiration?  Let's do some “armchair travelling” across the Pacific to one of the world's loveliest places for garden viewing:  Kyoto, Japan.   

Do you want your garden to be a place of exploration, or of contemplation?  Are you aiming for a shady garden layered with trees and shrubs, or a dry garden featuring artful arrangements of rock, stone, gravel, and sand? Whatever goals you have for your ornamental gardening space, the long tradition of Japanese garden design can provide foundational principles and practical ideas for even the smallest gardens. 

The balance between nature and man-made beauty as a guiding principle of all Japanese gardens goes back to prehistoric times.  And the belief that certain stones, waterfalls, ponds, and giant trees were sacred had long been a part of Japanese culture and its native Shinto religion. But in the late 700s a confluence of events led to the first formal aristocratic gardens in Japan.

The idea of the garden as an art form was introduced by craftsmen from China and Korea at the same time that Kyoto (Heian-Kyo) became the capital city of the Japanese islands. By this time several schools of Buddhism, also arriving from Korea, had been established, bringing with them ideas about the natural world that would become incorporated in the formal gardens of Japanese nobles. For example, the placement of one large rock surrounded by several smaller ones to symbolize the mountains that are a primary geographical feature of Japan. Or the creation of a pond with a small island situated in its midst to symbolize the “pure land” where enlightened spirits go when they die, ending the otherwise constant cycle of death and rebirth.

A strong connection between the art of poetry and the art of the garden was formed over the following 400 years.  Knowledge of the existing body of Chinese classics as well as Japanese poetry was important to virtually all aspects of court life in Japan, and poems most often featured scenes from nature.  Poems were written while viewing nature, then iconic images from poems were re-created in physical form in the garden, and those viewing these scenes would make the connection. Finally, the garden was also a place for one to write one's own poems.

The Gardens of Zen Buddhism: The dry gardens associated with Japan arose with the influence of Zen Buddhism.  The Mongol invasion of China in the early 1200s forced many Chinese priests to flee to Japan, bringing with them Zen Buddhism, with its emphasis on meditation as the path to self-enlightenment.  In Japan, the powerful warrior class (Shogunate) had taken control away from the nobles, and the “middle way” (no fear, no desire) and self-reliant aspects of Zen Buddhism appealed to these new rulers.  The gardens of warrior residences and Zen temples in cities became enclosed, inward-looking, austere landscapes, often referencing images from Chinese literature that expressed themes of Zen Buddhism. There was also a rising merchant class, with smaller properties, that favored less expansive gardens for reflection and contemplation rather than exploration.

In these gardens, more accurately referred to as “dry-mountain-water” (kare-san-sui) gardens, scenes of mountains and water are created with rocks (the mountains) and raked sand (the water), and meant to be viewed and explored mentally while looking out from a building or its viewing platform. The very simplicity of the natural elements selected (dark stone, white sand, dark green plants) encourages one to look more closely and to notice subtle differences in shape, color, and form. And the act of maintaining these dry garden environments – smoothing and raking the sand, clearing away leaves and debris—can be part of Zen practice, a meditative act in itself.

In the late 1500s and 1600s, the drinking of tea became elevated into an artform in Japan – another aristocratic practice that appealed to the warrior class as well as the merchant class. The ceremony of drinking tea in a rustic hut was an act of simplicity and humility, approached via a series of thresholds through which one progressively cast-off worldly cares and pressures.

Tea Gardens were, in effect, corridors leading to simple, grass-roofed tea houses. Stepping stones, small gates representing thresholds, and stone lanterns were integral to their design; lining the path would be evergreen trees and shrubs, and perhaps a few deciduous trees for fall color. Flowering trees or shrubs, annuals, and perennials were rarely incorporated, if at all, because their call for attention would compete with the goal of austerity. The aesthetic experience of tea culture is a good example of the term “wabi-sabi” in action:  the appreciation of the patina that simple, common materials achieve with use and age.

Stroll Gardens are in many ways the opposite of dry gardens or tea gardens.  In the Edo period (ca. 1600–1868), power shifted to the military government in Tokyo, and warlords began to build richly landscaped parks.  Used for entertaining important guests, these gardens were indications of a warlord's wealth and status. The royal families no longer had political power, but they, too, constructed elaborate stroll gardens which were meant to be experienced through walking. Similar to English landscape gardens of the same period, one might cross a bridge, rest on a bench, find shelter in a rustic hut, and perhaps come upon a religious shrine; often these gardens were part of larger estates that included farmlands and orchards. Overall, stroll gardens were places for excursions of fun and entertainment, but also of beauty – one might turn a corner and experience a completely new view, or see a landmark from a totally unexpected vantage point. Or even, continuing the earlier tradition of noble gardens, connect a garden scene with a well-known passage from poetry or literature.

Of course, it is unlikely that any of us have the acreage or desire to create an elaborate stroll garden, or the need for a separate tea house.  But there are many lessons to be learned from these gardens. For a start, the garden elements we choose can have deeper meanings and associations. Hardscaping and garden plants can be employed to create a mood, or to encourage one to slow down and look closely. The view of the garden from one's windows can be just as important as experiencing it outside.  A beautiful garden doesn't necessarily have to have a lot of blooming flowers – there are many, many shades of green! 

There are also many more lessons to take away from the gardens of Kyoto, and some of them will appear in next week's Real Dirt.

The source for this article is Marc Peter Keane, Japanese Garden Design (Tuttle Publishing, 2016). Highly recommended!

Want to learn about garden design in general?  Attend our free workshop on Landscape Design, part of the Master Gardeners' Fall 2024 Workshop Series. For more information, and to register, visit our website.

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