Abstract
The purpose of doing a study of a traditional Japanese garden is to find any relation of its cultural significance to the modern practice in Japan. It is whether the modern Japanese garden still serves its purpose, still follows the same design principle and main idea, as well as still maintains its importance in the Japanese architecture, community and culture--just as any traditional Japanese garden does, regarding to its design style. And through this study, it is in one’s hope to gain an even greater understanding of Japan and its people. By gathering information from literature reviews based on various sources regarding Japanese gardens, it will enhance the process and further making a proper case study as there are a variety of styles in designing a Japanese garden and each of this style has its design purposes. An example would be the tea garden in which its main purpose is for tea ceremony. For my case study, I am focusing on comparing two Japanese gardens: The Tenjuan’s Rock Garden and The Garden of Adachi Museum of Art. Both came from a different time period: The Tenjuan’s Rock Garden built in the Kamakura era while The Adachi Museum of Art Garden built in the modern era of Japan. Both served similar purpose as a viewing landscape, but in a different way. While The Garden of Adachi Museum of Art only serves to expand (with the artwork together) peoples’ appreciation and interest in Japanese art, the Tenjuan’s Rock Garden is serves as a place of reflection—a deep reflection of the Universe, making the visitors feel appreciated of the world around them. The Tenjuan’s Rock Garden (as its name stated) focuses mainly on using rocks, stones, gravel and sand in its design, positioning them and manipulating the sand surface properly and with a careful manner, in such that the garden represents the miniature beauty of nature. Almost the same concept as the Adachi Museum of Art Garden but different in its approach: large rocks and stones are positioned to blend well with vegetations such as bushes, grass and trees to represent mountains and hills. Speaking of which, instead being a flat type of garden like Tenjuan’s, grassy hills are designed to blend together with the background and the sandy surface that represents ponds and streams, in which created a miniature landscape of nature. From these findings, it is concluded that the modern Japanese garden still follows the main concept and values the traditional Japanese aesthetics while bringing new ideas to enhance the purpose of its design, as well to maintain its important role in the
Japanese architecture.
Introduction
Japanese gardens are miniaturized gardens stylized from the influence of Japanese principles of art and architecture. But the idea of a miniaturized garden was originated from China during the Nara Period. A Japanese emissary named Ono no Imoko visited the Chinese emperor Sui Yang Ti at the constructing Imperial Palace in China. During the visit, he was so impressed by the construction of the garden there. Four years later, the garden was completed. The scenery of the garden was of islands and ponds. It was a miniaturized beauty of nature. Later on, the Japanese merchants did frequent travel to China, bringing back many facets of Chinese culture and ideas that inspired many early garden makers to edge the lakes with rocks, stones and pebbles. This style became a true identity of traditional Japanese garden ever since.
But in later periods, the style was developed and branched into different styles of Japanese garden until the modern era. The Japanese gardens have been a part of Japanese culture for a long time and its importance is essential based on the style of garden designed and for what purpose. Whether or not the cultural significance, the purpose and the principle that the traditional Japanese garden has—still passed on through modern Japanese garden; it is a question that soon be answered through this case study.
Case Study I
a. What are the cultural significances of the traditional Japanese garden?
i- Aesthetic value
In Japan, the concept of aesthetics is seen as an integral part of daily life. From calligraphy, to performing arts, to tea ceremony, to literature & poetry, even to martial arts, and to architecture, the importance of beauty (and taste) signifies Japan's characteristics. However, their view of beauty is not as shallow as most in Western world would think of beauty is. To them (Japan), aesthetic comes in every shape and size—no matter how imperfect, impermanent and incomplete it is, these are considered to be beautiful. Something so simple and subtle can be shown as beautiful. Even something sour and bittersweet considered to be tasteful. These characteristics are especially implies to their greatest inspiration in their ideals of beauty: nature.
But the ideals of beauty in a Japanese culture are many, yet it does not mean that all are required to be emphasized upon an object, specifically the traditional Japanese garden. For most early traditional Japanese gardens, they were heavily influenced by Shinto-Buddhism. Through its emphasis on the wholeness of nature and character in ethics, and its celebration of the landscape, it sets the tone for Japanese aesthetics within the traditional Japanese gardens. Another most important concept that should be noted in a traditional Japanese garden is Yugen—an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious for words. It is of this concept that most traditional Japanese gardens were built in Shinto and Buddhist temples during the Asuka era and the Nara era. And later in Kamakura era, this concept was later revitalized in the rise of the Zen influence.
ii- Spiritual Value
As we were speaking of something more of a spiritual matter, it is clear that the traditional Japanese garden have its spiritual value. And being very connected to nature is another evidence that proves how valuable the Japanese garden was, spiritually. Before the introduction of
Buddhism in Japan, the Shinto religion followed a deification of nature, down to worship of particularly beautiful rocks or trees. These gardens known as niwa were a holy site where man and nature could commune. It was a place for reflection in the Kamakura era too.
iii-Social Value
Although it was a spiritual place, the Japanese garden was later changed its style and used as a recreational place for emperors and aristocrats, especially during the Heian era (which was before the Kamakura era). The garden was their stage, their playgrounds--their entertainment in a form of hobby, adding activities like boating and fishing. But it was a period of luxury and elegance in Japan. And it wasn't a bad reflection towards the traditional Japanese garden from the Nara era. The expression mono no aware (sensitivity of things) came to acquire an “undercurrent of profound melancholy” and further refined the unique atmosphere of Japanese gardens.
The point is that in social value, the traditional Japanese garden was once a private place for religious people to be one with nature, later for emperors and aristocrat to be entertained, and regained as well as developed its original purpose for viewer to contemplate the changing views as one moved through the landscape. After the Zen influence hit massively in Japan, tea gardens started to appear as an important place to hold up one of Japan's most celebrated ceremony, the tea ceremony.
Now, most existing traditional Japanese gardens from every period have become tourist attractions and public spaces.
b. What is the importance of the traditional Japanese garden in Japanese architecture?
According to history, the garden had been a part of Japanese architecture ever since the Asuka era. Predating the introduction of Chinese culture from the mainland, the earliest garden forms in Japan were sacred places in the midst of nature, which humans marked by pebbles. This early garden form can be recognized at some ancient Shinto shrines.
The history even said how the widespread adoption of Chinese culture and Buddhism has heavily
influenced the garden design, just as it did to the Japanese architecture.The garden was important during the Heian era to the emperor and aristocrats—devoted much of their time to the arts. They were built at imperial palaces and villas as a recreational place—used for elaborate parties and for recreational activities.
Later when the Zen influence grew stronger, it reintroduced the traditional Japanese garden as a place for reflection—a place of contemplation. It keeps the religious tones of the garden as the new garden designers were priests. During this time, Muso Soseki was the leading designer. He incorporated new designs that would help to enhance the concept of hide and reveal, by bringing the viewer out into the garden to reflect the changing views as one moved through the landscape.
Once the tea ceremony became a necessity in the Japanese culture, the style changed to celebrate the tea ceremony in a well-mannered way without any disturbance from the exterior and the interior.
c. What are the characteristics of a traditional Japanese garden?
What separates the Western-style and the Eastern-style is their relationship with nature. In the Western view, it “has been the story of man’s domination over nature, bending it to suit his own needs and desires”. On the other hand, nature was viewed as an ally in putting food on the table, and revered as the ideal of beauty. Instead of imposing a man-made ideal of beauty on the landscape, nature was synthesized in miniature in the garden. This philosophy of gardening reached its peak in ancient Japan.
In every garden has their component. In the traditional Japanese garden, rock, water, plantings, ornaments and borrowed scenery are an essential to completeness. Rocks are the bones of the Japanese garden, water is an intrinsic part of every garden, plantings play a secondary role to the stones in the garden, the ornament is subservient and outside scenery can sometimes be included in the garden as another reminder of the interconnectedness of all things.
The elements of time and space are dealt by the concepts of ma (“emptiness” of portions of the garden) and wabi/sabi (the beauty of imperfections, impermanent and incomplete). They are the key element in the design of traditional Japanese gardens. This space defines the elements
around it, and defined by the elements surrounding it. And so, as seasons changed, so does the garden itself. But as one learns to understand emptiness and imperfection, the impermanent beauty of a garden throughout the season, it was honored as tantamount to the first step of enlightenment.
A traditional Japanese garden is to become a microcosm of nature. It must be sealed away from the outside world in order for a garden to be a true retreat. With fences and gates, it provides the entrance and exit to and from the microcosm. It will make it seem as though it is an entrance to another world. In other words, enhancing the view of the garden as a separate world in which we have no worries or concerns. This also enhances the concept of hide and reveal. In some cases, the garden should have the tendency to be looked even further, to make a viewer wonders what is beyond every corners of the garden.
The gardens differ by setting and by use. There are three basic styles which are the hill and pond garden—that denotes a mountain area and uses plants indigenous to the mountains; the flat garden—a very Zen style that is a representative of a seashore area; and the tea gardens—the only time that function overrides form as one strive for a rustic feeling.
Another thing to remember is that there two types of traditional Japanese garden: a wet garden and a dry garden. The wet garden consists of water, rocks, and large vegetation while the dry garden consists of mostly rocks, stones, gravel and sand. The wet garden scenery would look like a miniaturized forest, islands and ponds, as well as mountains and seas. On the other hand, the dry garden scenery is an abstract representation of nature itself.
Next, another types of garden to be consider are viewing garden and strolling garden. A viewing garden is a garden that can be looked from certain point but cannot be touched or walked into the garden. This type of garden suits for a moment of deep thinking. Meanwhile, the strolling garden is the opposite of the viewing garden in most parts. Visitors can enter the garden and look around it from unlimited point. The garden's components can be touched too. The strolling garden is a much better garden than the viewing garden as visitors can experience fully just by walking around and use all the five human senses to interact with the garden's components unlike the viewing garden which limited the human senses to sight, smell, and hear.
Formality is a consideration in a traditional Japanese garden. Hill and pond, and flat styles can be
shin (formal), gyo (intermediate) or so (informal). Formal styles were most often found at temples or palaces, the intermediate styles were appropriate for most residences, and the informal style was relegated to peasant huts and mountain retreats. The tea garden is always in the informal style.
d. What are the characteristics of a modern Japanese garden?
A modern Japanese garden has almost the same characteristics as the traditional styles, with slight differences. After the westernization, Western style city parks were built, and many new private strolling gardens often contained Western gardening elements such as flower beds and open lawns.
Some modern garden designers also tried their hand at creating more traditional types of Japanese gardens, although they often included some new ideas into them.
e. Do the cultural significances of a traditional Japanese garden exist in the modern Japanese garden?
Most of the cultural significances still are. The modern style is still built based on the concepts such as yugen, and wabi-sabi to keep the feeling of appreciation towards natural beauty as well as the deep reflection of the Universe. They still emphasize on the “emptiness” of the garden, being simplistic but subtle, and being an ally with nature, creating another world that represents our world in a miniature and more meaningful view.
Case Study II
In Japanese art and culture, aesthetic is a part of daily life's essential to completeness and usually focus on the concept of change and impermanence. And sometimes, nature is a vital inspiration for artists to idealize it or symbolize it. Aesthetic ideals aren't just a mere decoration in their practice. They provide deeper meaning and representation as well as characteristics to a design. They are served to discipline others, whether during the making process or as one views and admires the finishing products. In Japanese garden, these aesthetic ideals influence the garden's concept and style.
Nanzen-ji Temple has multiple sub temples. One of them is the Tenjuan Temple which was dated back in the early 17th century, dedicated to the Zen master who served Emperor Kameyama. It is known for its two beautiful gardens: The dry garden and the wet garden.
The dry garden is also known as the rock garden— and as its name stated, the garden was designed with mostly stones, sand, and a large variety of special vegetation that when in autumn, the maple trees are flaming in vibrant colour—creating a charming sense of space in the garden. It has square stones placed as a footpath and was one of the few things that remained from the original temple. The surface of the dry garden is covered with sand and gravel that was raked in linear patterns and sometimes circling around stones and small grass. It was decorated as such to represent gentle seas. Facing the dry garden is the veranda of the hall where visitors can sit, relax and admire the scenery. Another yet strong purpose of the garden is for enlightenment and self-awareness of the world around them. It is one of the few examples of Zen garden. Like all Zen gardens, visitors are not allowed stepping on the scenery which is understandable. It is an art in a frame. It cannot be touched but to be admired from a certain angle.
Aesthetic wise, it follows the principle of wabi-sabi, the beauty of “impermanent, imperfect and incomplete. It is define as a beauty of an aging significant object. One of the examples of an aging
significant object would be the footpath and the maple trees. Miniaturization is a prominent principle in Japanese garden, as it is supposed to be the interpretation of nature.
The Adachi Art Museum has a garden that won an award and was named the best garden in Japan since 2003 by the Journal of Japanese Gardening. The founder of the museum, Adachi Zenko hoped that people will learn to appreciate more and become more interest in Japanese art by viewing the gardens and artwork together. Like the Tenjuan Dry Garden, the visitors are not allowed to enter the garden and can only view it from inside of the museum building. Ironically, this modern garden was inspired by few landscape strolling gardens and rock gardens.
The gravel on the flat surface of the garden represent a river coming from in between rocks and manicured shrubs that are carefully arranged to fully imitate mountains and hills. Lawns can possibly represent the land from the dark side of the mountains. And the background is filled with evergreen trees and mountains which makes the scenery even more beautiful and inspiring. It is truly a real-life landscape painting, a great representation of nature.
From here, there is no doubt that the Adachi Art Museum garden follows the principles of wabi-sabi, miniaturization, “borrowed” scenery, and asymmetry very well. Another aesthetic principle that is well appealed is concealment. It is a concept of “hide and reveal”, in which it is meant to be seen all at once, and to let visitors grow more curious of what is beyond the rocks and shrubs.
Conclusion
At the end of this case study, it is understood that the traditional Japanese garden is still an important part of the Japanese culture and art. It is an important component in the Japanese architecture too. Every styles and types has its use and purpose, so one must careful when designing a garden. It has become mainstream worldwide including the Western world, as it creates a harmonic representation of nature. It shows an example to other garden designers to show respect to nature and be an ally to it, not a being to control and manipulate with. Otherwise, a garden has no emotion towards nature. Traditional Japanese garden has also become an inspiration to modern designers to design the impossible: idealize nature in a small space—so long as ones' ally (nature) could do the same.
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