A visit to Japan wouldn’t be complete without visiting a Japanese garden. Or in our case, visiting dozens of Japanese gardens! We explored gardens at temples, shrines, palaces, castles and parks and, yet, we never grew tired of them. Why? What makes Japanese gardens so special? 
I was fascinated to discover authors have been thinking about this question for more than 1000 years. The oldest known book on aesthetic gardening (vs agricultural-estate gardening) is the Sakuteiki Records of Garden Making which was written during the Heian period (794-1184). It’s an interesting read but I found this explanation offered by author Jake Hobson to be most helpful: “The source and inspiration for Japanese gardens can be traced to three fundamental factors: the country itself (its landscapes, geography and climate), the religious beliefs (Shinto and Buddhism), and the cultural aesthetics of Japan. These sources are inextricably linked, and have to be thought of together to get a decent overall picture of the gardens.”
The first factor Hobson calls out, the country itself, made me take a step back to consider Japan’s geography. As an island, or rather a collection of 14,125 islands, Japan has a long, varied coastline and an intimate relationship with water. The country is surprisingly mountainous with rugged, often uninhabitable, terrain covering about ¾ of its landmass and forests covering about 67% of the country.
The Sakuteiki instructs readers to “Visualize the famous landscapes of our country and come to understand their most interesting points. Re-create the essence of those scenes in the garden, but do so interpretatively, not strictly.” Jirō Takei and Marc P. Keane, authors of the 2008 modern translation of the Sakuteiki, explain that “paying keen attention to the intricacies of nature is one of the underlying themes in the Sakuteiki” and that “out of the vastness of nature, mountains and water have been chosen as representative elements, fusing them into a single icon that represents the whole”.
It seems to me, this carefully-executed vignette, from the Kenrokuen Gardens in Kanazawa, recreates the essence of rocky mountain ranges and rugged shore lines.
Shinto and Buddhism religious beliefs are the second factor Hobson identified. I assume there are many ways in which religious beliefs influence garden design. For instance, author Sima Eliovson in her book Gardening the Japanese Way, offers the following connection “The acute awareness of nature in the Japanese people might stem from the fact that, in their early history, they revered the rocks, trees and hills where the gods of nature were believed to have lived and that, long after their religious belief in Shintoism had disappeared, they were left with a heritage of heighted powers of observation regarding natural effects.”
Small shrines are placed in quiet and serene natural settings at the Iwakiyama Shrine in Hyakuzawa.
Another connection comes from “the Zen Buddhist belief that one should love that which is unfinished as this symbolizes life or the infinite. …The Japanese adjective Shibui and its noun shibusa describe a discriminating taste that is as applicable to gardens as it is to other things in art and behaviour. It may be interpreted as a dislike of ostentation and an admiration of a refined, cultured and unassuming demeanour, accompanied by serenity and appreciation of incompleteness. This is the premise that nothing should be too perfect or it will fall short of reality and become artificial.”
Pictured below is a beautiful stone lantern situated in a mossy nock at the Tenryu-ji Garden in Kyoto. The un-manicured grasses and mosses, especially around the lantern base, give the scene an air of imperfection.
Cultural aesthetics are the third factor Hobson identifies. In her explanation of Japanese taste, Eliovson explains “The Japanese words wabi and sabi are essential concepts behind the creation of Japanese gardens and were related to gardening by the tea-master Sen-no Rikyu, who wanted to induce a frame of mind that would appreciate quiet elegance. Wabi may be interpreted as rustic simplicity and an appreciation of simple frugality. Sabi is an appreciation of surfaces and textures that reflect age and usage, such as those on natural, unpainted wood, weathered stone, moss-covered rocks and dried bamboo.”
The short bamboo fences which we saw bordering paths in several Japanese gardens are an example of rustic simplicity. Shown below is a bamboo fence in the Kenrokuen Gardens.
The simple rope fences and rustic stepping stones at the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden provide another example of rustic simplicity and the opportunity to appreciate simple frugality or wabi.
We saw a myriad of mossy and weathered surfaces in the Japanese gardens we visited. Admittedly, I was on the lookout for mosses after learning so much about them for the blog post Growing Carpets and Coats of Moss.
These steps at the Iwakiyama Shrine are a great example.
This gorgeous green moss carpet at the Ginkaku-ji Garden (Silver Pavilion) in Kyoto was the perfect opportunity to appreciate surfaces and textures that reflect age and usage or sabi.
Most of the gardens we visited were considered stroll gardens. As the name suggests, a stroll garden “is one which is large enough to stroll around, seeing different vistas at every point and turn of the path.” wrote Eliovson. This rustic path invites visitors to stroll in the Kenrokuen Gardens.
Garden designers during the Edo period “continued the trend of involving participants in the garden, while at times manipulating the participant using new techniques to create the desired effect, including diagonal approaches, ‘hide and reveal’ and shakkei (borrowed scenery).” reports author Mike Roberts.
“Japanese garden components of this period were approached obliquely, or diagonally. When viewed this way within the garden setting, the component seems less a destination and more a feature of the landscape.” These stepping stones at the Heian Jingu Shrine Gardens, a National Site of Scenic Beauty in Kyoto, provide an indirect route to the next section of the garden.
With the hide and reveal technique, the garden designer deliberately directs the visitor’s attention from one view or sight to another while slowly revealing the garden. This can be accomplished with meandering paths, irregular stepping stones or greenery screening.
Shown below, a torii gate leads the visitor into a different section of the Heian Jingu Shrine Gardens revealing a lovely pond.
Uneven stepping stones, like these at Ginkaku-ji Temple draw the visitor’s eyes down to the ground.
With borrowed scenery, shakkei, the garden designer leverages views or elements outside the actual garden to make it appear bigger and more expansive. The visual planes of the garden—the foreground, middle ground and background—are optimized to add perspective. The garden itself provides the foreground. A distant vista or a neighboring forest overstory of tall trees, which is located outside the actual garden, is borrowed for the background. Greenery is often planted along the garden’s boundaries, in the middle ground, to smooth the transition between foreground and background.
A distant forest is borrowed for background at the Seven Fortune Gods Hill in the Kenrokuen Garden.
The foreground, middle ground and background are discernible in this viewing garden at a Kyoto temple.
Far-off mountains become borrowed scenery at the Ginkaku-ji Temple Garden.
A few of the Japanese gardens we visited were designed for viewing instead of strolling. “A viewing garden” writes Eliovson, “is meant to be seen from the main room of a house or temple. It does not matter whether the garden has a visual or an intellectual appeal, but the spectator should be able to stop and look at the garden quietly in order to be able to meditate on the beauties of nature and become relaxed, philosophical and released from the tensions of daily cares.”
A dry garden is a great example of a viewing garden. Eliovson explains “The Japanese name karesansui is used to describe dry gardens and is translated as meaning “dry water scenes”. These gardens are meant to suggest water by means of stretches of gravel or sand. They may suggest seas or lakes, rivers or streams, depending on the way in which they are combined with rocks and plants. … Most of them are Zen Buddhist gardens which have symbolic meanings, but many are purely abstract in design, without particular meanings. They are meant to induce meditation about the meanings of the gardens and so distract the spectator from every day cares. The actual meaning is not as important as the conjecture which it stimulates.”
Shown below are a few vignettes from the dry garden at the Ginkaku-ji Zen Garden.
Some Japanese gardens include separate sections for strolling and viewing. Tea-gardens, for instance, have a stepping-stone path leading from the gate to the tea-room as well as an inner-garden designed to be viewed from the tea-room.
“Tea-gardens are functional gardens which have been especially designed for the enjoyment of the Japanese tea-ceremony. … The greatest of all the tea-masters was Sen no Rikyu (1521-91), who developed the tea-ceremony to a peak of perfection and designed a special tea-garden in which to perform the tea-ceremony.” writes Eliovson.
This spectacular viewing garden is visible from the Saisetsu-tei tea house in Gyokusen’inmaru Garden in Kanazawa.
Nearby in the Kenrokuen Gardens, visitors to this charming tea-room situated on the edge of Hisagoika Pond…
… are greeted with a completely different view—the outstanding Kaisekito Pagoda across the pond.
Water gardens “are gardens which have a lake as the main feature of the garden. The lake need not be very large, but it must consist of a stretch of tranquil water” explains Eliovson. Water gardens can be designed for strolling, boating or viewing.
Visitors to the Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto can stroll around the lake while enjoying views of the spectacular Golden Pavilion.
In Tokyo’s Ueno Park, the Shinobazu no ike Bentendo Temple is located on an island in the Shinobazu Pond. The surrounding water garden invites visitors to enjoy the pedal boats as well as stroll around.
The gardens are particularly beautiful in the evening when the temple is reflected in the pond’s surface.
To completely answer my original question, What makes Japanese gardens so special?, would require a much longer response—after all, entire books have been written on this subject. But a few points to consider from this blog post are:
Japanese gardens take on multiple forms including strolling gardens, viewing gardens, dry gardens, tea-gardens and water gardens.
Many factors have influenced the design of Japanese gardens over the last thousand years. For instance, author Jake Hobson identifies “three fundamental factors: the country itself…, the religious beliefs…, and the cultural aesthetics of Japan”.
Japanese taste and cultural aesthetics guide garden design. A few examples as explained by Sima Eliovson are:
.Wabi – “a rustic simplicity and an appreciation of simple frugality”
.Sabi – “an appreciation of surfaces and textures that reflect age and usage”
.Shibui / shibusa – “an admiration of a refined, cultured and unassuming demeanour, accompanied by serenity and appreciation of incompleteness”.
Japanese garden designers deliberately involve participants in the garden with techniques such as those described by Mike Roberts:
.“diagonal approaches whereby garden components are approached obliquely”
.“hide and reveal”
.shakkei – borrowed scenery.
More Info
Check out the FanningSparks blog post, Growing Carpets and Coats of Moss, to learn more about moss gardening.
To learn more about the historic classic Sakuteiki “Records of Garden Making”, see the 2008 modern translation Sakuteiki: Visions of the Japanese Garden by Jirō Takei and Marc P. Keane which is available on the Internet Archive.
Jake Hobson is known for bringing Japanese tools to gardeners in the United Kingdom. He is the author of the 2007 book: Niwaki: Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way which is available on the Internet Archive. You can learn more on his Niwaki website.
Sima Eliovson was a prolific and popular author from South Africa. She published twelve books on gardening and gardeners including Gardening the Japanese Way which is available on the Internet Archive.
See the blog post Japanese Gardens 101 – Part 1: The History of Japanese Gardens by Mike Roberts.
The North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) champions the art, craft and heart of Japanese Gardens in North America. See the NAJGA website for more info.
Check the FanningSparks’ Travel > Asia > Japan category index to learn more about my adventures in Japan.
Today’s Takeaways
1. “The garden’s most important function is providing atmosphere and surroundings which make day-to-day life happier.” Kashikie Isamu
2. “While a thorough knowledge of Japanese gardens, or, for that matter, Japanese culture, is not necessary to enjoy the beauty and serenity a Japanese garden may offer, having an understanding of Japanese garden aesthetics, forms, and elements can intensify the experience.” Don Pylant
3. “Restraint is always seen in the best gardens … simplicity and artistry … have made the traditional Japanese garden a peaceful place in which to meditate, relax and enjoy the beauty of nature.” Sima Elivoson
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