Zen Garden Design. Shunmyo Masuno
a garden for a private residence, whether in Japan or abroad, Shunmyo Masuno’s aim is to create a garden that has a “lasting impression” and “becomes an essential part” of the owner’s life. For a private residence, in particular, the owner lives with the garden every day and throughout the year, often working to maintain it as well as observe and enjoy it, so the garden must add to their life in positive ways and not become a burden. To accomplish this, not only does Masuno carefully consider the physical and programmatic elements of the garden—the client’s wishes, the layout and relationship of the various components, the views to and within the garden, the types of plantings, etc.—but he also focuses on designing the feeling or atmosphere of the garden. With this goal, he integrates the concept of omotenashi, or the spirit of hospitality or service without expectation of anything in return.
Considered to have been established by the tea master Sen no Rikyu, the founder of wabi-cha or the wabi-style of tea,2 as the mindset required to properly prepare and host a tea ceremony, omotenashi pervades Japanese culture. The concept incorporates sincerity and pride in one’s efforts, along with a true spirit of selflessness. For Masuno, the concept of omotenashi is integral to his Zen training and comes forth in his gardens in the way he designs by “not thinking ‘I’ll do it this way.’”3 To focus on the client’s desires for the garden, as well as the site conditions, potential, and jigokoro, or spirit of the place, Masuno starts from a mindset of selflessness, or muga.
In his garden designs, the Buddhist concept of muga relates to Masuno’s idea of expressing “Buddha nature more than ego.”4 Through his Zen training, especially daily zazen meditation, Masuno is able to design from an open, selfless, egoless mind, which allows him to connect to the jigokoro, as well as the kokoro, or spirit, of each garden element. In this way, beginning each design from a mindset of muga and integrating it with omotenashi, builds on Masuno’s Zen Buddhist training and on Japanese culture to produce gardens that “become an essential part” of the owner’s life.
山水庭
SANSUITEI
Private Residence Shanghai, China, 2015
Creating an impression of a mountain trail, sunlight filters through pine trees and illuminates the stepping stone path that moves between mossy mounds toward a tōrō lantern and on into the shadowy depths of the distant mountains.
Composed to provide a sense of spatial depth and a close connection to nature, the Sansuitei garden surrounds the residence on three sides and offers changing views and experiences from every room.
The living room windows frame a view of the garden that feels enclosed and private, yet with a sense of space that seems to extend beyond what the eye can see.
INCORPORATING THE FEELING of deep mountain scenery and the continuous movement of flowing water, Shunmyo Masuno based the design of Sansuitei (literally “mountain water garden”) on the Zen expression kanzashite sansui o miru (閑坐看山水). Meaning to calm the spirit and freely contemplate nature, as represented in the saying by mountains and water, the expression inspired Masuno to create a garden that would encourage the viewer to quietly contemplate nature with an open and peaceful spirit.
The private house in an upscale suburb of Shanghai had an existing garden, but after renovating the interior and exterior of the house to a more modern style, the owner also wanted to renew the green spaces. Given his interest in Buddhism and the inclusion of a meditation space in the house, the owner looked to Masuno for the new garden design. Masuno made it a goal to incorporate as many of the existing trees as possible and yet create a totally new garden in keeping with the architecture of the house.
The garden wraps the house on three sides—east, north, and west—and features each of the elements of water and mountains in two distinct ways. As the garden is primarily viewed from inside the house, Masuno designed specific outlooks from each window. In this way, the design takes advantage of every section of the garden to highlight the different water and mountain features and provide as much visual variety as possible.
Placed within the shadowy depths of the mountain-like scenery, at the edge of the moss and extending into the “river,” a roughly edged rounded stone slab serves as the base for a simple cubic stone chōzubachi basin.
The first view is from the living room, where the scene unfolds as a mountain path leading between pine trees toward a distant waterfall. The ryūmonbaku, literally “dragon’s gate waterfall,” is an arrangement of dry landscape rocks, all sourced in China, representing a carp attempting to ascend the waterfall and pass through the “dragon’s gate” (ryūmon). The ryūmonbaku symbolizes a Buddhist expression referring to Zen training on the path to enlightenment. Flowing out from the waterfall, a river of gray pea gravel swirls around the mossy knolls from which the pine trees rise and appears to make its way under the house. Starting from a door at the edge of the large living room picture window and moving toward the southern end of the garden, a series of stepping stones lead through the gravel and moss to a nobedan stone-paved walkway ending at a carved stone tōrō lantern. The lantern occupies a prized position among the pines and moss in the west side mountain garden.
On the north side, just outside of the dining room, a Muromachi-era tōrō punctuates the space of a small water-themed courtyard garden. Representing still water, a bed of white pea gravel covers the ground area, interrupted only by the lantern, a few carefully placed rocks, and a rocky-edged island knoll with a single pine tree. Carefully trained to lean far out over the water, the pine tree exemplifies the power and beauty of nature. Simple white walls, with cutaways to show the lush green trees beyond, create the backdrop for the quiet garden.
On the opposite side of the dining room, in the northeast corner, Masuno adapted an existing koi pond to fit within the garden theme. Water runs down a wall of stacked thin dark stones into the small square pond, creating a soothing soundscape that can be appreciated even with the windows closed. The bright red color of the fish provides strong contrast to the monochrome pond and waterfall, as well as generates vibrant flashes of movement within the space.
The asymmetrical composition of the small courtyard garden, visible from the dining room, features a stone tōrō lantern from the Muromachi era (1334–1573) and a carefully trained pine tree leaning out over the pea gravel “ocean.”
Stimulating both the eyes and the ears, thin slabs of dark stone create a textured waterfall at the edge of the rectangular koi pond, just outside the dining room.
Situated just south of the pond, the owner’s meditation room looks onto the waterfall on one side and also has a view into a narrow part of the east garden, which again features the mountain theme. This small section of the eastern garden acts as a quiet meditation garden, with just a few simple elements. A small bush anchors one corner, while several stalks of bamboo provide a backdrop for a low tōrō lantern set upon a rough rock. The carefully rounded edges of the lantern contrast with the roughness of the base rock, and the rock mediates between gravel in the foreground and the mossy background. A small tree at the right side completes the composition, juxtaposed against the human-height white wall that creates the perimeter edge with its backdrop of tall leafy trees.
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