Creating A Japanese-style Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

A garden that reflects the universe

The artistic phenomenon, now called the Japanese garden, was formed around the beginning of the X century.

Today, this landscape style has a number of features that almost everyone will be able to list: the use of compositions of stones and pebbles, mosses, bamboo and flowering trees; obligatory presence of reservoirs with running or standing water.

Reasonableness and asymmetry of the composition, the obviousness of strict laws of harmony make it a true model of the universe.

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The world of the monastery garden

Initially, the gardens in the Land of the Rising Sun were built at Shinto monasteries. That is why they have such a pronounced philosophical component. The life of the monks proceeded in prayer and contemplation, and the way they found to convey the sacred power of nature through symbolic gardens allowed them to expand the boundaries of the monastic territory to the size of the universe.

Their gardens had ponds behind which the Ocean stood, and hills that embody the beauty of all the mountain ranges of the planet. The monastery gardens were just as important a part of the temple as all the other buildings of the monastery. The feelings that reigned in the soul of an oriental pilgrim who entered the Shinto garden is akin to the thrill of a true Christian who came to the temple to pray.

The monks told about how to properly equip the garden in one of the first books on gardening art in the history of mankind - "Sakuteiki", which was published in the 11th century. Further evolution of the gardens was promoted by Buddhism. The asceticism of Buddhist philosophy gave rise to the art of a dry garden, where with the help of free-flowing natural materials (sand, gravel) and stones of various shapes and textures, exciting landscapes were created, in which one could see not only models of wildlife, but also a metaphorical story about the wanderings of the human soul, about the vicissitudes of life and, most importantly, how to overcome these obstacles.

Thus, the Buddhist garden posed questions and itself gave answers to them. Answers that were not categorical … - one of the basic compositional principles of the Japanese garden - uncertainty - and at the same time were the only correct - evidence of this was the balance of all elements of the garden.

The oldest surviving dry garden is the Ryoanji Garden in Kyoto. Fifteen quite ordinary stones are divided into five groups, and according to one of the theories dating back to the Confucian teaching, they symbolize tigers with their cubs swimming across the river.

For a Buddhist monk, creating a dry composition is one of the Zen paths, full of contemplation and understanding of the nature of stones. Each stone has its own soul, its own life, each of them has its own metaphor.

To arrange them in the wrong way means to lie and thereby provoke the garden visitor to a false emotional response. Precisely because individuality is inherent in each stone, it is impossible to simply copy the creations of the masters of antiquity, as the author of "Sakuteika" warned about, recommending, when creating compositions, to trust primarily one's own feelings.

Near the house

"Secular" Japanese gardens could formally be divided into small, from a few square meters, intended only for viewing, and into large, landscape, in which you could walk, admiring the change of compositions, running streams, skillfully made islands, bridges and stone pagodas …

In addition to the dry landscapes that have migrated to ordinary estates from monasteries, a landscape composition, where the main character is water - the "garden of water", can become a Japanese garden; somewhat less often you can find a "garden of moss", built on the play of textures and shades of greenery of these ancient plants. Most often, home oriental gardens include stones, water, and green spaces. And here it is not the formal selection of elements that becomes important, but what the owner of the garden wanted to express by using certain materials.

The symbolism of the Japanese garden has become so refined over many centuries that its language can be called universal. Many people understand without words that the stones in such a composition are the skeleton of the earth, and water is its blood; the stone symbolizes Yang - the masculine principle, clarity and firmness, water - Yin, the feminine essence of all phenomena, everything is dark, mysterious. Each of the plants has a semantic symbolism: bamboo - masculinity and stamina, pine - longevity, lotus - spiritual purity.

Evergreen trees and shrubs form the basis of all plant compositions; for deciduous plants, not only their shape during the active growing season is taken into account, but also the color change depending on the season and how they look with loose foliage, since the garden should be enjoyable all year round. The number of flowers is limited - these are irises, daylilies, lotuses. The humid climate of the Land of the Rising Sun contributed to the growth of various moisture-loving plants in the gardens - mosses and ferns.

The most revered tree in the Japanese garden is pine, a favorite plant not only of Japanese gardeners, but also of poets:

Autumn moon

Pine ink painting

In blue skies

Ransetsu

Today, most often you can see pine trees with an artificially formed crown - garden bonsai. The Japanese have reached incredible heights in this art, and a beautifully shaped tree can become the basis of the entire composition of the garden.

Another indispensable inhabitant of oriental gardens is bamboo. This extremely fast growing herb, most often supplemented with ferns in compositions, is quite self-sufficient. Bamboo is usually grown in the form of a small grove, which serves as a resting place for its owners. Bamboo is useful even after it has outlived its life - in Japan it is customary to build fences, bridges, water pipes and many other decorative elements of the garden from it. He's also a reliable sidewalk for tiny garden dwellers:

Evening shower -

Ants hurry to the ground

Along the bamboo trunks …

Joseo

It is impossible to imagine an oriental garden without flowering fruit trees. The Japanese have a special attitude towards cherry blossoms, under the branches of which everyone is able to feel both the value of human relations and eternal sadness:

There are no strangers between us!

We are all brothers to each other

Under the cherry blossoms.

* * *

Sad world!

Even when cherries are blooming …

Even then …

Masaoka Shiki

In the composition of the plants of the oriental garden, great attention is paid to shades of greenery - the darker one is placed in the background, and the lighter one - in the foreground, creating a sense of the depth of the garden space. Trees form a kind of general picture and at the same time remain independent. The rhythmic alternation of the mass of foliage and free space is designed to give the viewer the impression of confrontation and harmony of the forces of Nature.

Thoughts on the Distant

Old pond.

A frog jumped into the water.

Splash in silence.

Saigyo

Water has always been part of the Japanese garden. At the very beginning of the evolution of Japanese gardening art (VII-XII centuries), there was a Chinese model of a garden with a reservoir in the country: sufficiently large ponds and lakes were built, in which it was possible to ride boats made in the shape of a dragon, thus moving through the entire garden.

Under the influence of Zen Buddhism, imitations of water spaces of stones and sand arose, as well as a tendency to value not so much the surface of the water, as the dynamics of the stream and the sounds made by streams and waterfalls. Waterfalls of the Japanese garden can be simple and complex, multi-stage. The place for the waterfall is chosen with great care. Almost always, they are covered with vegetation, which makes the scenery even more romantic.

Garden ponds in the eastern garden always have islands, one of which is considered paradise and does not connect to the shore. There are several types of islands: forest, mountain, rocky, with young pines on the sand. Favorite islands in Japan are the "turtle" island, which symbolizes the desire for knowledge, and the "crane" island, which lifts the human spirit upward.

In modern Japanese gardens, ponds are replaced by small stone pools of water, and sometimes there is not even room for them. Then this element of nature can be introduced into the composition of the garden in the form of a tsukubai - a stone bowl with water in the form of a barrel, in which hands were traditionally washed during the tea ceremony. In some cases, the tsukubai may be at ground level, but most often it is raised to a height of 20-30 cm. Usually, the tsukubai is placed on a low, small flat area in front of a stone wall, hedge or in the center of the garden and is certainly illuminated with a stone lantern.

Another decorative element of the garden that has a lot to do with water is a thin aqueduct made of a hollow bamboo stalk through which water runs. The Japanese name for this watercourse is shishi odoshi, which means "frightening deer" because it was originally invented by farmers for this very purpose. Most often, such structures are located at the edge of the pond.

The water supply in the Japanese garden is closed, a pump and a water supply system are used here, but all this is quite elementary, described in detail in the corresponding manuals and is familiar to any landscape architect. Do not be afraid of the complexities of constructing a water supply system, since the result will delight you not only from the aesthetic side: in the feng shui system, water is an element that corresponds to money, and a properly located and regulated garden water system will certainly contribute to the prosperity of the house.

Symbols of eternity

Stones are the most stable garden design element in an oriental garden. It is they who create the look of the garden. Plants and trees appear and disappear, and stones give the garden a sense of permanence.

In that tiny model of the universe, which is created during the construction of the eastern garden, the stone was originally intended to embody inaccessible peaks resting under the clouds. But gradually a real art of placing stones arose - sute-ishi, through which any scene and any elements of nature could be depicted.

In a Japanese garden, stones are always placed diagonally. Untreated, natural stones are used most often; the most valuable are specimens covered with rust or moss of brown, red or purple colors, less often white.

Since the days of the greatest gardeners of antiquity, who were confident that the wrong arrangement of stones in dry gardens can change the fate of the garden's inhabitants for the worse, there are a number of rules that should be followed when creating compositions. For example, you should not take stones of a round or square shape; stones with the same weight, shape and mass must not be placed one after another.

Groups of stones should be located slightly away from the planted plants. The stones are placed on the surface or partially buried in the ground, sometimes obliquely, at an angle to the ground. The position of the stone must be stable - this should be monitored especially strictly. For the construction of paths, stones with one flat side are used (the uneven ones are buried in the ground). The long axis of each stone should be perpendicular to the direction of the path.

Sand and fine gravel are widely used in Japanese gardens. They are placed in small areas of the garden, protected from the wind. Walking along dry streams on sandy "waves" is full of contemplation and poetry.

Evening.

On the shadows of the larch I

walk quietly.

As if on the fragments of my

past life.

Motoko Michiura

To create dry compositions, a layer of sand 5-6 cm thick is poured onto the rammed earth and a pattern is applied with a special rake, which most often symbolizes waves or ripples in the water. The drawing is easily renewed, and the sand should be refilled periodically.

The stone elements of the garden include the lanterns so beloved by the people of the West, which were originally an element of the eastern temple gardens. As a rule, they are located at the bends of the garden path, at the edge of a reservoir, stream or next to a bridge. For the manufacture of lanterns, various stones, wood or pumice are used.

For large gardens, pedestal lanterns (tachi-gata) are used, up to 1.5, and sometimes up to 3 m high; hidden lanterns (ikekomi-gata), the light from which is directed into the ground, they are most often located near the tsukubai (pond for washing hands); small lanterns (oki-gata) are usually placed at the edge of a pond, away from a path, or in a very small indoor garden; in addition, there are lanterns with a square or round roof, which have stone or concrete supports (yukimi-gata) at the base; they are most often installed near water bodies.

Japanese garden on Russian soil

The difference in climatic conditions makes its own adjustments to the layout of Japanese gardens in our country: many plants characteristic of the East simply cannot exist with us, and they have to look for a replacement.

The main plant of the eastern garden - pine - winters here. One of the species of mountain pine Pinus muga mughus pumillio is most often taken for this role. A distinctive feature of this plant is the location of the ends of the branches at the same height. As a result, flat balls are formed, which practically do not need a haircut. In addition, garden bonsai can be formed from Pinus silvestris, Pinus strobus (Weymouth pine); use almost all junipers for this purpose (for example, Juniperus horizontalis 'Prince of Walles', 'Wiltoni', 'Jad River', 'Rockery Jem', 'Blue cheap', 'Gray pearl'), thuja or tub plants, for the winter cleaned in closed, well-lit rooms with low temperatures.

Wonderful Japanese maples (green Acer palmatum dissectum and scarlet A. p. Dissectum atropurpurea) cannot survive our winter, and for them there is also a "shell" wintering option. It is not easy to create conditions for wintering "street" tub plants; they cannot be placed in a winter garden, because the temperature of a winter garden, even a subtropical one, is too high for maples (ideal for them is + 1 … + 5 ° С). Therefore, sometimes landscape designers go to replace exotic plants with our usual plants. For example, maples can be successfully replaced by elderberry (Sambucus racemosa v. Plumosa or v. Plumosa aurea), which, moreover, gets a haircut - it looks a little worse than a "role model".

Bamboo is one of the irreplaceable plants of the oriental garden, which under no circumstances grows in the climate of Russia: it is present on our sites only as a building material for decorative trellises, fences and watercourses. With all the other flowers, trees and shrubs, the situation is somewhat simpler. So, the banks of the ponds can be decorated with irises and daylilies. Among the ferns, there are many species that winter in our area, including the bracken.

When planning to plant flowering fruit trees, you should first of all pay attention to zoned varieties, and, in addition, take into account all the subtleties in these matters. So, for example, the decorative Japanese quince is likely to freeze every winter for the entire length of the shoots that are located above the level of the snow cover, and the indicated design height of this plant of 1.5 m is unlikely to be achievable in practice. Ornamental shrubs, which are often found in oriental gardens, grow well in our country: rhododendrons and numerous varieties of spirea, including dwarf ones.

Adopting Japanese traditions, one should pay more attention to the thoroughness of the projects, rather than the species list of plants. In addition, if we talk about modern Japan, then today's landscape design of this country uses new technologies to a great extent, introducing many modern materials, for example, ceramics and glass, into compositions. When undertaking to create a Japanese garden on your site, first of all, observe the balance of all elements, do not overload the space, try to hear the voice of every stone in your garden - and the garden, having grown, in gratitude, will certainly become a harmonious and cozy model of the Universe …