The Art of the Japanese Garden. David Young

      JAPANESE GARDENS: AN OVERVIEW

      In Japan, gardening as an art form has developed over thousands of years, beginning with simple pebbled covered plots on the beach or in the forest, created for ceremonies honoring spirits believed to have come from the heavens or across the sea. Pebbled plots later developed into the graveled courtyards associated with prehistoric chiefs’ houses and Shinto shrines. This early indigenous tradition was joined by beliefs and practices from China and Korea, beginning in the third century BCE and culminating with the introduction of advanced civilization in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. This latter wave of influence brought writing, Buddhism and continental style gardens organized around a pond.

      Indigenous and continental traditions continued to interact over the centuries and often were integrated in a variety of ways to serve the needs of royalty, aristocrats, temples and shrines and, eventually, also commoners. In the process, Japan created some of the most beautiful and sophisticated gardens in the world. Today, Japanese gardening practices have been adapted to the needs of modern society and exert a major influence upon gardens in other countries of the world.

      Some time before the end of the Pleistocene epoch people entered Japan from various parts of Asia. Some came from the north through the island of Sakhalin; some came from China via Korea; others appear to have come from the south by boat. Not much is known about these early people except that they were Paleolithic hunters and gatherers who employed sophisticated stone tools.

      During the Jōmon Period (10000–300 BCE), pottery was invented and towards the end of the period people began experimenting with wet rice agriculture on a small scale. People lived in pit houses but grain was stored in elevated structures. In the Yayoi Period (300 BCE–300 CE), new cultural influences and people arrived from the mainland to bring a more settled way of life with large villages supported by irrigation agriculture. It was during this period that the indigenous religion developed into what came to be known as Shinto.

      Development of a Unified State

      Beginning in the late Yayoi Period, burial mounds were created for clan leaders and other important persons. The Tomb Mound Period, beginning around 300 CE, was a time when Japan was struggling to overcome centuries of conflict between rival clans and to develop a unified state under the leadership of the Yamato clan, from which the present imperial house is descended. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century from Korea. The period between the arrival of Buddhism and the Taika Reform of 645 is known as the Asuka Period (538–645), which takes its name from the Asuka area near Nara. During the Asuka Period, Japan underwent great transformation as it came under the influence of continental culture.

      Suizenji Jōjuen, a large stroll garden in Kumamoto with large expanses of grass.

      Dominance of Continental Culture

      The Taika Reform of 645, which marks the beginning of the Hakuhō Period (645–710), created a central government and a legislative structure based upon the model of the Tang Dynasty in China. The first real capital was established at Fujiwarakyō in 694. Official interchange with China was established for the first time and continental culture spread from the court to the provinces. In 710, the capital was moved from Fujiwarakyō to Heijōkyō, near present-day Nara, to usher in the Nara Period, which lasted from 710 to 794. Major Buddhist denominations established their headquarters in the new capital. The great flowering of architecture and the arts that ensued marks the high point of Buddhist culture in Japan and the maturation of Japan into a nation state. The capital was moved again in 794 to Heiankyō (present-day Kyoto), where it remained for over 1,000 years until Edo (present-day Tokyo) became the capital at the time of the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Heian Period (794–1185), which derives its name from Heiankyō, saw continued borrowing from Tang China. Eventually, Japan reduced contact with the continent and assimilated what it had learned to produce a distinctive culture of its own.

      Feudalism

      Towards the end of the Heian Period, a series of wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans resulted in victory for the Minamoto. Partly to escape the influence of the imperial court in Kyoto, the victorious clan established a military system of government known as the bakufu in Kamakura, near present-day Tokyo. This marks the beginning of the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). Japan had become a feudal society, with a shogun as its head, governed by the principles of bushidō—the Way of the Warrior. The Kamakura shogunate, weakened by Mongol invasions, was replaced by the Ashikaga family who moved the military capital back to Kyoto, to begin the Muromachi (Ashikaga) Period (1333–1573). In the Muromachi Period, there was a great flowering of Zen-inspired arts such as black ink painting, calligraphy, flower arranging, the tea ceremony, Noh drama, the martial arts and landscape gardening. Eventually, the Ashikaga shogunate waned in power and more than a decade of clan warfare (the Ōnin War) reduced much of the capital to rubble. Japan was reunified in the Momoyama Period (1573–1600) by a succession of three great military leaders: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa family moved the military capital from Kyoto to Edo (present-day Tokyo) in 1600 to begin the Edo (Tokugawa) Period (1600–1868), which was characterized by two and a half centuries of relative peace and stability as well as isolation from the West.

      Early Modern Japan

      Dissatisfaction with the Edo rulers grew as Japan fell behind the West in technology and many feared the growing threat of colonization. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 abolished the shogunate and samurai class and restored the emperor to power, at least in theory. Japan became a constitutional monarchy and embarked upon the road to rapid modernization, industrialization and urbanization. With these developments came a growing militarism that eventually led Japan to defeat in World War II and occupation. Japan rebuilt rapidly after the war and soon became an important economic force in the modern world.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JAPANESE GARDEN

      In Western societies whose cultures are fundamentally European in origin, the word “garden” means a place where things are grown, as in “vegetable garden,” “flower garden” or a formal garden where flowers, shrubs and trees are artistically arranged and managed to provide aesthetic enjoyment. In Japan, this definition is too narrow since many gardens, being composed entirely of rocks and gravel, do not have vegetation.

      Autumn at Sanzenin Temple in Ōhara, near Kyoto, which stands in moss-covered grounds shaded by towering cryptomeria.

      The Concept of Teien

      The modern Japanese term for garden is teien, a compound word composed of the characters for niwa and sono. In prehistoric times, the term niwa referred to places where specific activities were carried out,

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