JAPANESE STROLL
GARDENS
By Kristina Taylor
It
may surprise many garden-visitors to discover that besides the minimalist,
abstract sand and stone gardens of Japan, there is another sort of
garden which is equally traditional. This is the stroll garden of the Edo period (1615-1867).
In many ways
stroll gardens resemble classic English 18th c landscape parks with
ponds, rivers, islands, bridges, pavilions, open spaces, circular paths and
borrowed landscape. But unlike Stowe or Stourhead, in which one follows a
Classical journey derived from literature, the Japanese gardens represent a
travelogue, evoking famous sights either real or literary. They may include
representations of Mt Fuji or the slopes of Lushan in China, not
necessarily looking exactly like the originals but alluding to them. Other
themes may include a rice field to represent rural life, or rocks and
waterfalls to conjure up the peaks and gorges of the Kiso area.
One
of the first of these gardens was made at Katsura, in Kyoto, for Prince Toshihito. At 17acres it is relatively small, though the
artful way that it has been constructed, and the way you are led through it -
over paths and stepping-stones of various shapes and sizes - trick you into
believing it is very much larger than it really is. The main villa has a
moon-watching platform in front of a small lake shaped to keep its reflection
as long as possible.
Crossing
the inland sea to the island of Shikoku one comes to Takamatsu where there is the most famous of
the stroll gardens, Ritsuren. It was originally created as the private garden
for the feudal lord, in the 17th century, at the base of Mt Shiuo –
the Purple Cloud Mountain. Developed over the next hundred years, it is
now a public park. On entering, one is
immediately struck by the spaciousness, though each turn brings a view, a rock,
a tree or water. Visitors sit in the teahouse facing west and speak of
philosophy, but moving around to the east side to overlook the lake their
thoughts turn to the spiritual world. Horticultural techniques are very
important and one of the 1400 pine trees in the garden is called Tsurekame matsu,
meaning ‘crane to raise the pine’. Every autumn it takes one week to pluck out
half of its needles, as the tree is painstakingly pruned to look like a crane
perched on its turtle shaped rock.
Other
famous stroll gardens of the period have also been turned into public parks:
Kenrokuen in Kanazawa and Korakuen in Okayama. Photographs in
Josiah Conder’s book from 100 years ago show little
change, though Koruakuen had to be reconstructed after WWII, from Edo period paintings and plans.
I shall be conducting a tour of
Japanese historic gardens in November 2007 and March 2008 and we will visit a
number of old and new gardens including those mentioned here. Please contact me
at whitejasmine@tiscali.co.uk
or renato@ectuk.com if you would like to join me.