Large pond garden at Narita-san-Shinshaji Temple near Narita airport

In the Spring of 2015 we were fortunate enough to visit Japan and made a point of seeing a good number of gardens as we toured around.

As you may know, Japanese garden design is a very complicated subject and the resulting gardens are quite different from the gardens we are used to here.

The basic principle is that a garden should be a work of art, inspired by nature, appearing to be natural but not wild.  Basic principles include:

• miniaturisation: the garden is a compact, idealised view of nature – perhaps with rocks representing mountains, and ponds representing seas
• asymmetry: the garden is laid out as a complex of different scenes
• concealment: different aspects of the garden are revealed as one strolls
•  borrowing of scenery: features outside the garden may be incorporated into the scenes revealed within it.
• There are many different styles of garden which include three main types of plant-based garden:
• the promenade or strolling garden, originally built for nobles and viewed from a clockwise route (consistent with Buddhist beliefs)
•  the pond garden, where water takes centre stage
•  small gardens in courtyards, perhaps devoted to the tea ceremony.

Finally, there are the very special dry rock gardens associated with Zen Buddhist temples.

Here are views of some of the gardens we saw on our trip.
Liz and Mike Bissett

Courtyard garden in Yanaka, an old suburb of Tokyo

Strolling garden - a 16th century garden in Nikko

Borrowing of scenery garden

Small courtyard garden behind a house in Kyoto

Large pond garden at Tenryu-ji Temple outside Kyoto

---

Dry Zen garden at the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto