The Japanese garden

The Japanese garden

The significance of the Japanese Gardens is not only artistic but horticultural, religious and historical. The Japanese Gardens are now of international renown and are acclaimed as one of the finest gardens in Europe. Created between 1906 and 1910 these gardens can be seen as a living monument to the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures.

History of Japanese gardens

Asuka Period: gardens which expressed Buddhism and Taoism visions by imitating famous mountains of Chinese origin such as Penglaishan, were created.
Archaeological research has found some ruins of the gardens in Fujiwara and Heijyo castle towns. Within Heijyo castle town the remains of a water passage seemingly used at “water poetry ceremonies”.

In late Heian Period, Sakuteiki was written. It is the first book that discusses the techniques for allotment of land, stone arrangement, artificial waterfall, water passage and planting. Because of the influence of Pure Land Buddhism, pure-land-style gardens, which imitated Paradise in the Western Pureland, became popular in this time. The main architectural style has shifted from shinden style to Amitabha hall style by this time.

Many great gardens were created between Kamakura Period and Muromachi Period, not only because garden-making technique had improved in accordance with the rise of Zen and the development of Syoin-zukuri style, but also because successive shoguns liked making gardens. In this period, great garden makers such as Soseki Muso were produced. The dry landscape style, the technique by which water currency was expressed by stone arrangement without using water from ponds or creeks, had also spread in this period.