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Chapter 1: Japanese Inspirations
by Patricia Jonas
For several decades, and some would argue for most of the 20th century, American gardeners have been embracing lessons learned from great English, Italian, and French gardens while developing a uniquely American style of gardening. Still, most of us have not been able to figure out what to do with lessons from Japanese gardens, despite the excellent solutions they offer to some very contemporary woes—diminishing space for gardening and loss of everyday contact with the natural world.
Since the last decade of the 19th century, Japanese-style gardens have been a part of the North American landscape. They have been built as exotic displays for World's Fairs and installed in public gardens. They have been built for resorts, restaurants, and miniature golf courses. They have been built on great estates and in suburban yards. They are everywhere, and yet all too often, Japanese-style gardens are merely an overlay of Japanesque elements on the landscape. Very few American gardeners have effectively assimilated the lessons of this magnificent 1400-year-old gardening tradition and built gardens that possess the serenity and perfect harmony of the best Japanese examples (there are hackneyed gardens in Japan, too). In "Authenticity in Japanese Landscape Design," David Slawson suggests we are led away from the essence of a good Japanese garden by depending on the "authenticity" of the materials with which we build, rather than being true to the spirit of Japanese gardening and building with appropriate local materials.
Given a tradition as culturally sophisticated and historically rich as Japanese gardening, we can only begin to elucidate some of its basic principles, aesthetics, and design practices in this short book. We concern ourselves very little with symbolism that may have had significance for 10th-century Japanese aristocrats or 16th-century Japanese monks but has no meaning for us and almost as little for contemporary Japanese. We focus instead on elements with universal significance: water, for instance, is associated with cleansing and purification in most cultures, even if it does not possess the powerful sacred qualities it does in Japan.
We hope to inspire you to create gardens using Japanese principles and practices, relying on few, if any, of the stereotypical signs announcing "this is a Japanese garden." If we inadvertently offer formulas here, do not rely on them; instead, take these principles and break new ground. The resulting garden will be authentic in the best sense. On the other hand, if it is the vermilion bridges and stone lanterns you love, incorporate them into your European-style garden as you would gazing globes, gazebos, or any other architectural elements and garden art, classical or whimsical. Read no further unless it is the heart of the Japanese garden you wish to reveal within your garden space.
In the best Japanese gardens there is evidence of intelligent and active
engagement with nature. A beautiful example is the Garden at the Katsura
Imperial Villa in Kyoto.
Photo: Charles Mann
Certainly not all Japanese gardens are made in the same style, but in every good garden there is evidence of intelligent and active engagement with nature. No other gardening tradition has culminated in a more perfect integration of house, garden, and landscape. The finest example is the Katsura Imperial Villa and Garden in Kyoto, but the same harmony can be found in the smallest tsubo-niwa (courtyard garden). To build a satisfying garden, it is necessary to observe nature closely enough to be able to distill sights, sounds, and fragrances and express them with an absolute economy of means—a simple grouping of rocks, plants, and water. The result must be an elegant balance of opposites: mass and emptiness, light and dark colors, smooth and rough textures, sound and silence, and revealing and hiding.
In "The Garden Path as a Journey," Marc Peter Keane explores his theme in two classic Japanese garden styles, the tea garden and the stroll garden. We learn how techniques like revealing and hiding scenes along a path (mie-gakure) can shape our experience of time and space in the garden, and how the outside world is left behind in stages as one follows the path more deeply into the calm of the garden. In "Rocks in the Japanese-inspired Garden," David Engel offers advice on the best ways to choose and set rock in relation to other rocks, plants, and the ground plane; how to reveal the nature of each; and how to use rock to shape the movement of water and give it a voice. In "Water in the Japanese Garden Style," Judy Glattstein offers practical advice on introducing water regardless of how small your garden space might be. In "Pruning Trees and Shrubs," Douglas Roth demonstrates several key techniques and basic approaches to the all-important art of pruning—revealing the natural character of trees through careful shaping and editing.
We don't pretend to cover every subject and hope readers will develop their connoisseurship by visiting exemplary Japanese-style gardens in the United States and by visiting museums where there is a great deal to learn about garden aesthetics from Japanese painting. Although you will find many practical tips in it, this book is not intended to be a construction manual for the Japanese garden. For instance, it does not include a chapter on building fences and walls. The essential aspect of fences, walls, and hedges is that they provide enclosure in virtually every Japanese garden, defining space and setting the garden apart but not closing it off from the rest of world. If you wish to use a classic design in your garden, consult Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces or A Japanese Touch for your Garden (see "For More Information," page 104) for some of the hundreds of traditional Japanese patterns for fences and walls.
Choosing and setting plants in the Japanese garden is based on an ancient gardening principle of "natural habitat." We've organized the encyclopedia to demonstrate how to use plants with their natural allies to define ecoregions within the garden. We do not limit our plant choices to natives, but like ancient Japanese garden manuals, we suggest that plants not associated with an ecosystem's vegetation can be dissonant notes in the scene. Instead of piling on plants with horticultural bravado to achieve dramatic visual effects, the Japanese gardener subtracts, to make the garden quiet. Practice reductionism: if you have twenty plants, choose the one that is naturally the dominant plant in each stratum, and use only those few. In a world where garden greed is a virtue and plantoholics are celebrated, this is the radical message of Japanese garden design.
Patricia Jonas is a horticulturist, writer, and director of library services at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She studied and visited Japanese gardens while living in Japan for two years.