Despite its long history, Japanese garden design is about tranquillity, renewal and centring the mind in the moment.
Words & photos Jo Immig
A working holiday in my early 20s introduced me to the enigmatic world of Japanese gardens. Recently I was fortunate to revisit Kyoto, the garden capital of Japan, where I set out to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s garden aesthetic.
Japanese garden culture is among the oldest in the world, dating back 1500 years. In that time, designs evolved to include aristocratic stroll gardens, tea gardens and enclosed dry-landscape stone gardens associated with Zen Buddhism.
Seasonal nature
Temporal in nature, Japanese stroll and tea gardens embrace the distinct seasons and celebrate fleeting displays of beauty.
Perhaps the most beloved season is spring when hanami, the flower-watching festival, occurs. Celebrated since the 7th century, it draws people out to gaze upon fleeting blossoms, delighting in the sense of renewal they bring after winter.
Similarly, momiji celebrates the picturesque turning of the maples and ginkgo leaves to warm shades of purple, red and gold in the coolness of autumn. It was maple season during my recent visit.
There’s nothing like strolling along a stone path in an ancient garden and finding a perfectly placed maple tree reflecting its autumnal colours into a lake. It’s breathtaking and induces a state of contemplation and reverence.
Finding tranquillity
A key conceptual aspect of Japanese garden design is seijaku, or tranquillity, which speaks to the idea of finding serenity amid the busyness of life, bringing a sense of peace and harmony with nature.
Characteristic elements such as rocks, gravel and stepping stones form the structure of the Japanese garden, while gently moving water represents life force and plants provide colour and link to the seasons.
Each element is deeply entwined with ancient cultural beliefs in Shinto, Japan’s animistic religion, which reveres supernatural deities called kami (“spirit gods”).
Shintoism teaches that the sacred is manifest in nature. Humankind and nature are not considered separate, so there is deep gratitude to the source of nature.
Bridges, for instance, are used to create islands in gardens as it’s believed kami reside there. Handmade sacred rope is often seen tied around a tree or stone, signifying the presence of kami.
Meditation on nature
At first glance to the western eye, a meticulously curated Japanese garden might seem like an exercise in triumph over nature, with its miniaturised cloud-pruned shrubs and trees, tiny mosses and carefully placed rocks and paths. But the intention is quite the opposite.
In essence, the Japanese garden is an homage to nature. It’s a miniaturised view of nature that plays with scale to bring about contemplation.
Rocks represent mountains and ponds can be oceans. The garden may be positioned to seamlessly blend with the “borrowed view” in the distance, giving a sense of connection to the broader landscape.
Geomancy and stones
Of all the elements, stone is revered for its enduring quality. Stones form the key structural element and balance the appearance of the overall garden.
Early garden designs were influenced by the widespread adoption of Chinese culture and practices such as geomancy and feng shui, a divination process used to guide the auspicious placement of objects.
Positioned stones in gardens represent miniaturised mountains, boats or animals such as turtles and are used as focal points for contemplation.
Zen Buddhist gardens
The most profound influence on Japanese gardens was the introduction of various forms of Buddhism, which arrived from China over the 6th century. Zen Buddhism had a particularly significant influence on garden design.
A power shift occurred at this time from the aristocratic court, with its large stroll and tea gardens, to the military elite whose rulers embraced Zen Buddhism.
Traditional Zen gardens, known as karesansui, were attached to temples and used for meditation rather than recreation. The design is a minimalist dry garden with rock, gravel, sand and wood. There are few plants and no water features, but stone lanterns and statuary are included.
Rather than looking out, these gardens are enclosed and one is encouraged to look within. Gravel is raked by monks into symbolic patterns and the act of raking is a meditative process to improve concentration.
Many ancient Zen gardens still exist in Kyoto. One famous example is Saihoji, more commonly known as Kokedera, or Moss Temple. During my last visit I had the pleasure of visiting this UNESCO World Heritage site.
Built on the foundations of an ancient temple, Saihoji was restored and made into a Zen temple in 1339 by the monk Muso Soseki. The dry landscape garden at Saihoji is regarded as the pinnacle of this style and strongly influenced subsequent Japanese garden designs.
Soseki believed Buddhism expresses its spirituality through the gardens and the aim of the garden is to meet one’s own Buddha nature there.
