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77-505: The Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden ( 旧芝離宮恩賜庭園 ) , also known as Kyū Shiba Rikyū Onshi Teien ("Former Shiba Villa Imperial Gift Gardens") is a public garden and former imperial garden in Minato ward, Tokyo , Japan. The garden is one of four surviving Edo-period clan gardens in Tokyo, the others being Koishikawa Kōraku-en , Rikugi-en , and Hama Rikyu Garden . Kyū Shiba Rikyū is often regarded as

154-506: A challenge for the gardeners. Due to the absolute importance of the arrangement of natural rocks and trees, finding the right material becomes highly selective. The serenity of a Japanese landscape and the simple but deliberate structures of the Japanese gardens are a unique quality, with the two most important principles of garden design being "scaled reduction and symbolization". Japanese gardens always feature water, either physically with

231-618: A composition whose function is to incite mediation." Several of the famous Zen gardens of Kyoto were the work of one man, Musō Soseki (1275–1351). He was a monk, a ninth-generation descendant of the Emperor Uda and a formidable court politician, writer and organizer, who armed and financed ships to open trade with China, and founded an organization called the Five Mountains, made up of the most powerful Zen monasteries in Kyoto. He

308-463: A dry waterfall made from stone named Karetaki flows. A stone lantern provides supposedly a good spot for snow viewing, although Tokyo rarely gets snow nowadays. Notable is also the wisteria trellis in the picnic area, especially when the wisteria blooms at the beginning of May. Besides the garden office there is also a Japanese Archeryrange and a children's playground. The garden is surrounded by High-rise buildings and Skyscrapers. Plants found in

385-620: A faint hint of the style to very many gardens. The ideas central to Japanese gardens were first introduced to Japan during the Asuka period ( c.  6th to 7th century ). Japanese gardens first appeared on the island of Honshu , the large central island of Japan. Their aesthetic was influenced by the distinct characteristics of the Honshu landscape: rugged volcanic peaks, narrow valleys, mountain streams with waterfalls and cascades, lakes, and beaches of small stones. They were also influenced by

462-549: A more naturalistic style, of which the Japanese style was an attractive variant. There were immediately popular in the UK, where the climate was similar and Japanese plants grew well. Japanese gardens, typically a section of a larger garden, continue to be popular in the West, and many typical Japanese garden plants, such as cherry trees and the many varieties of Acer palmatum or Japanese maple, are also used in all types of garden, giving

539-715: A much more radical approach to the traditions. One example is Awaji Yumebutai , a garden on the island of Awaji , in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, designed by Tadao Ando . It was built as part of a resort and conference center on a steep slope, where land had been stripped away to make an island for an airport. Japanese gardens are distinctive in their symbolism of nature, with traditional Japanese gardens being very different in style from occidental gardens: "Western gardens are typically optimised for visual appeal while Japanese gardens are modelled with spiritual and philosophical ideas in mind." Japanese gardens are conceived as

616-602: A new garden architecture style appeared, created by the followers of Pure Land Buddhism . These were called "Paradise Gardens", built to represent the legendary Paradise of the West, where the Amida Buddha ruled. These were built by noblemen who wanted to assert their power and independence from the Imperial household, which was growing weaker. The best surviving example of a Paradise Garden is Byōdō-in in Uji , near Kyoto. It

693-451: A pond or stream, or symbolically, represented by white sand in a dry rock garden. In Buddhist symbolism, water and stone are thought of as yin and yang , two opposites that complement and complete each other. A traditional garden will usually have an irregular-shaped pond or, in larger gardens, two or more ponds connected by a channel or stream, and a cascade, a miniature version of Japan's famous mountain waterfalls. In traditional gardens,

770-523: A promenade garden, meant to be seen from the winding garden paths, with elements of the Zen garden, such as artificial mountains, meant to be contemplated from a distance. The most famous garden of this kind, built in 1592, is situated near the Tokushima castle on the island of Shikoku . Its notable features include a bridge 10.5 metres (34 ft) long made of two natural stones. Another notable garden of

847-482: A prototype for future Japanese architecture. They opened up onto the garden, so that the garden seemed entirely part of the building; whether the visitor was inside or outside of the building, they would ideally always feel they were in the center of nature. The garden buildings were arranged so that were always seen from a diagonal, rather than straight on. This arrangement had the poetic name ganko , which meant literally "a formation of wild geese in flight". Most of

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924-554: A representation of a natural setting, tying in to Japanese connections between the land and Shinto spiritualism, where spirits are commonly found in nature; as such, Japanese gardens tend to incorporate natural materials, with the aim of creating a space that captures the beauties of nature in a realistic manner. Traditional Japanese gardens can be categorized into three types: tsukiyama (hill gardens), karesansui (dry gardens) and chaniwa gardens (tea gardens). The small space given to create these gardens usually poses

1001-445: A stimulant to keep awake during long periods of meditation. The first great tea master, Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591), defined in the most minute detail the appearance and rules of the tea house and tea garden, following the principle of wabi ( 侘び , "sober refinement and calm") . Following Sen no Rikyū's rules, the teahouse was supposed to suggest the cottage of a hermit-monk. It was a small and very plain wooden structure, often with

1078-413: A thatched roof, with just enough room inside for two tatami mats. The only decoration allowed inside a scroll with an inscription and a branch of a tree. It did not have a view of the garden. The garden was also small, and constantly watered to be damp and green. It usually had a cherry tree or elm to bring color in the spring, but otherwise did not have bright flowers or exotic plants that would distract

1155-489: A well-designed garden as near as possible to its original condition, and many famous gardens appear to have changed little over several centuries, apart from the inevitable turnover of plants, in a way that is extremely rare in the West. Awareness of the Japanese style of gardening reached the West near the end of the 19th century, and was enthusiastically received as part of the fashion for Japonisme , and as Western gardening taste had by then turned away from rigid geometry to

1232-654: Is somewhat obscure, one of the Japanese words for garden— niwa —came to mean a place that had been cleansed and purified in anticipation of the arrival of  kami , and the Shinto reverence for great rocks, lakes, ancient trees, and other "dignitaries of nature" would exert an enduring influence on Japanese garden design. Japanese gardens were also strongly influenced by the Chinese philosophy of Daoism and Amida Buddhism, imported from China in or around 552 CE. Daoist legends spoke of five mountainous islands inhabited by

1309-459: Is that they are designed to be seen from specific points. Some of the most significant different traditional styles of Japanese garden are the chisen-shoyū-teien ("lake-spring-boat excursion garden"), which was imported from China during the Heian period (794–1185). These were designed to be seen from small boats on the central lake. No original examples of these survive, but they were replaced by

1386-566: The Man'yōshū , the "Collection of Countless Leaves", the oldest known collection of Japanese poetry. The Nara period is named after its capital city Nara . The first authentically Japanese gardens were built in this city at the end of the 8th century. Shorelines and stone settings were naturalistic, different from the heavier, earlier continental mode of constructing pond edges. Two such gardens have been found at excavations, both of which were used for poetry-writing festivities. One of these gardens,

1463-423: The kami , the gods and spirits, are found on beaches and in forests all over the island. They often took the form of unusual rocks or trees marked with cords of rice fiber ( shimenawa ) and surrounded with white stones or pebbles, a symbol of purity. The white gravel courtyard became a distinctive feature of Shinto shrines, Imperial Palaces, Buddhist temples, and Zen gardens . Although its original meaning

1540-508: The roji or teahouse garden, designed to be seen only from a short pathway, and the tsubo-niwa , a very small urban garden. Most modern Japanese homes have little space for a garden, though the tsubo-niwa style of tiny gardens in passages and other spaces, as well as bonsai (in Japan always grown outside) and houseplants mitigates this, and domestic garden tourism is very important. The Japanese tradition has long been to keep

1617-639: The daimyō , around which new cities and gardens appeared. The characteristic garden of the period featured one or more ponds or lakes next to the main residence, or shoin , not far from the castle. These gardens were meant to be seen from above, from the castle or residence. The daimyō had developed the skills of cutting and lifting large rocks to build their castles, and they had armies of soldiers to move them. The artificial lakes were surrounded by beaches of small stones and decorated with arrangements of boulders, with natural stone bridges and stepping stones . The gardens of this period combined elements of

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1694-580: The Eight Immortals , who lived in perfect harmony with nature. Each Immortal flew from his mountain home on the back of a crane . The islands themselves were located on the back of an enormous sea turtle . In Japan, the five islands of the Chinese legend became one island, called Horai-zen, or Mount Horai . Replicas of this legendary mountain, the symbol of a perfect world, are a common feature of Japanese gardens, as are rocks representing turtles and cranes. The earliest recorded Japanese gardens were

1771-633: The Kyoto Imperial Palace of 794, the Heian-jingū , was built in Kyoto in 1895 to celebrate the 1100th birthday of the city. The south garden is famous for its cherry blossom in spring, and for azaleas in the early summer. The west garden is known for its irises in June, and the large east garden lake recalls the leisurely boating parties of the 8th century. Near the end of the Heian period,

1848-645: The Shōwa period (1926–1989), many traditional gardens were built by businessmen and politicians. After World War II, the principal builders of gardens were no longer private individuals, but banks, hotels, universities and government agencies. The Japanese garden became an extension of the landscape architecture with the building. New gardens were designed by landscape architects , and often used modern building materials such as concrete. Some modern Japanese gardens, such as Tōfuku-ji , designed by Mirei Shigemori , were inspired by classical models. Other modern gardens have taken

1925-542: The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognizes 22 species and one hybrid: A few names have been coined using the name Lycoris but referring to species now considered better suited to other genera ( Griffinia and Ungernia ). Here are links to help you find appropriate information. In phylogenetic analyses based on chloroplast genes , Hori et al. found that all species of Lycoris they examined were nested within L. radiata . They suggest that

2002-565: The pleasure gardens of the emperors and nobles. They are mentioned in several brief passages of the Nihon Shoki , the first chronicle of Japanese history, published in 720 CE. In spring 74 CE, the chronicle recorded: "The Emperor Keikō put a few carp into a pond, and rejoiced to see them morning and evening". The following year, "The Emperor launched a double-hulled boat in the pond of Ijishi at Ihare, and went aboard with his imperial concubine, and they feasted sumptuously together". In 486,

2079-437: The tepals (subgenus Lycoris ; e.g. Lycoris radiata ), and those with shorter stamens not much longer than the tepals (subgenus Symmanthus Traub & Moldenke; e.g. Lycoris sanguinea ). The fruit is a three-valved capsule containing several black seeds . Many of the species are sterile, reproducing only vegetatively, and are probably of hybrid origin; several additional known hybrids occur. As of April 2015 ,

2156-826: The "marsh pond" style, a large still pond with aquatic plants; the "mountain torrent style", with many rocks and cascades; and the "rose letters" style, an austere landscape with small, low plants, gentle relief and many scattered flat rocks. Lycoris (genus) Lycoris is a genus of 13–20 species of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae , subfamily Amaryllidoideae . They are native to eastern and southern Asia in China, Japan, southern Korea , northern Vietnam , northern Laos , northern Thailand , northern Burma , Nepal , northern Pakistan , Afghanistan , and eastern Iran . They were imported into North Carolina and now grow wild. In English they are also called hurricane lilies or cluster amaryllis. The genus shares

2233-457: The "paradise garden" associated with Pure Land Buddhism , with a Buddha shrine on an island in the lake. Later large gardens are often in the kaiyū-shiki-teien , or promenade garden style, designed to be seen from a path circulating around the garden, with fixed stopping points for viewing. Specialized styles, often small sections in a larger garden, include the moss garden , the dry garden with gravel and rocks, associated with Zen Buddhism ,

2310-790: The East Palace garden at Heijō Palace , Nara, has been faithfully reconstructed using the same location and even the original garden features that had been excavated. It appears from the small amount of literary and archaeological evidence available that the Japanese gardens of this time were modest versions of the Imperial gardens of the Tang dynasty, with large lakes scattered with artificial islands and artificial mountains. Pond edges were constructed with heavy rocks as embankment. While these gardens had some Buddhist and Daoist symbolism, they were meant to be pleasure gardens, and places for festivals and celebrations. Recent archaeological excavations in

2387-501: The English name spider lily with two other related genera. They are bulb -producing perennial plants . The leaves are long and slender, 30–60 cm long and only 0.5–2 cm broad. The scape is erect, 30–70 cm tall, bearing a terminal umbel of four to eight flowers , which can be white, yellow, orange, or red. The flowers divide into two types, those with very long, filamentous stamens two or three times as long as

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2464-563: The Golden Pavilion , built in 1398, and Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion , built in 1482. In some ways they followed Zen principles of spontaneity, extreme simplicity and moderation, but in other ways they were traditional Chinese Song-dynasty temples; the upper floors of the Golden Pavilion were covered with gold leaf, and they were surrounded by traditional water gardens. The most notable garden style invented in this period

2541-623: The JR Hamamatsuchō Station Exit 1, or a five-minute walk from Daimon Station . The garden is also close to the Hamarikyu Gardens and the Tokyo World Trade Center . Japanese garden Japanese literature on gardening goes back almost a thousand years, and several different styles of garden have developed, some with religious or philosophical implications. A characteristic of Japanese gardens

2618-651: The Japanese court sent fifteen more legations to the court of the Tang dynasty . These legations, with more than five hundred members each, included diplomats, scholars, students, Buddhist monks, and translators. They brought back Chinese writing, art objects, and detailed descriptions of Chinese gardens. In 612 CE, the Empress Suiko had a garden built with an artificial mountain, representing Shumi-Sen, or Mount Sumeru , reputed in Hindu and Buddhist legends to be located at

2695-875: The Kishū family of the Tokugawa clan . In 1871 the ownership changed again to the Arisugawa-no-miya clan. In 1875, the Imperial Household Agency purchased the residence and it became the Shiba Detached Imperial Villa and in 1891 a European style guest house was constructed. In the Great Kantō earthquake on September 1, 1923, all buildings and trees on the site were destroyed by fire. Subsequently, in January 1924,

2772-684: The Mongol invasions. The monks brought with them a new form of Buddhism, called simply Zen , or "meditation". Japan enjoyed a renaissance in religion, in the arts, and particularly in gardens. The term Zen garden appears in English writing in the 1930s for the first time, in Japan zen teien , or zenteki teien comes up even later, from the 1950s. It applies to a Song China -inspired composition technique derived from ink-painting. The composition or construction of such small, scenic gardens have no relation to religious Zen. Many famous temple gardens were built early in this period, including Kinkaku-ji,

2849-656: The ancient capital of Nara have brought to light the remains of two 8th-century gardens associated with the Imperial Court, a pond and stream garden – the To-in – located within the precinct of the Imperial Palace and a stream garden – Kyuseki – found within the modern city. They may be modeled after Chinese gardens, but the rock formations found in the To-in would appear to have more in common with prehistoric Japanese stone monuments than with Chinese antecedents, and

2926-405: The arms of an armchair, with the garden between them. The gardens featured one or more lakes connected by bridges and winding streams. The south garden of the imperial residences had a uniquely Japanese feature: a large empty area of white sand or gravel. The emperor was the chief priest of Japan, and the white sand represented purity, and was a place where the gods could be invited to visit. The area

3003-401: The attention of the visitor. A path led to the entrance of the teahouse. Along the path was waiting bench for guests and a privy, and a stone water-basin near the teahouse, where the guests rinsed their hands and mouths before entering the tea room through a small, square door called nijiri-guchi , or "crawling-in entrance", which requires bending low to pass through. Sen no Rikyū decreed that

3080-523: The centre of the world. During the reign of the same empress, one of her ministers, Soga no Umako, had a garden built at his palace featuring a lake with several small islands, representing the islands of the Eight Immortals famous in Chinese legends and Daoist philosophy. This palace became the property of the Japanese emperors, was named "The Palace of the Isles", and was mentioned several times in

3157-471: The chronicle recorded that "The Emperor Kenzō went into the garden and feasted at the edge of a winding stream". Chinese gardens had a very strong influence on early Japanese gardens. In or around 552 CE, Buddhism was officially installed from China, via Korea, into Japan. Between 600 and 612 CE, the Japanese emperor sent four legations to the court of the Chinese Sui dynasty . Between 630 and 838 CE,

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3234-534: The couple, some call the herbs "mañjusaka" ( 曼珠沙華 ; 曼珠沙华 ), a compound of "mañju" and "saka", instead of their standard name, shísuàn ( 石蒜 ). The same kanji name is used in Japanese, where it is pronounced manju-shage . Some other legends have it that when a person sees someone that they may never meet again, these flowers would bloom along the path. Perhaps because of these sorrowful legends, Japanese people often used these flowers in funerals . The common Japanese name for Lycoris , higanbana ( 彼岸花 ) ,

3311-411: The dead into the next reincarnation. When the flowers of Lycoris bloom, their leaves would have fallen; when their leaves grow, the flowers would have wilted. This habit gave rise to various legends. A famous one is the legend of two elves: Mañju ( 曼珠 ; Mànzhū ), who guarded the flower, and Saka ( 沙華 ; 沙华 ; Shāhuá ), who guarded the leaves. Out of curiosity, they defied their fate of guarding

3388-422: The east, to enter the garden, pass under the house, and then leave from the southeast. In this way, the water of the blue dragon will carry away all the bad spirits from the house toward the white tiger. The Imperial gardens of the Heian period were water gardens , where visitors promenaded in elegant lacquered boats, listening to music, viewing the distant mountains, singing, reading poetry, painting, and admiring

3465-595: The emperors and the rivalry of feudal warlords resulted in two civil wars (1156 and 1159), which destroyed most of Kyoto and its gardens. The capital moved to Kamakura , and then in 1336 back to the Muromachi quarter of Kyoto. The emperors ruled in name only; real power was held by a military governor, the shōgun . During this period, the government reopened relations with China, which had been broken off almost three hundred years earlier. Japanese monks went again to study in China, and Chinese monks came to Japan, fleeing

3542-535: The end of the 16th century referring to isolated tea houses. It originally applied to the simple country houses of samurai warriors and Buddhist monks, but in the Edo period it was used in every kind of building, from houses to palaces. The sukiya style was used in the most famous garden of the period, the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto. The buildings were built in a very simple, undecorated style,

3619-435: The garden include Japanese black pine , camphor trees , azalea , Persea , Japanese iris , Platycodon grandiflorus , Crinum latifolium , Japanese wisteria , leopard plant , and spider lily . Wildlife include little egrets , Eastern spot-billed ducks , and carps , seasonally also tufted ducks , northern pintails , and common pochards . The park is located at 1-4-1 kaigan, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105–0022, close to

3696-507: The garden should be left unswept for several hours before the ceremony, so that leaves would be scattered in a natural way on the path. Notable gardens of the period include: During the Edo period , power was won and consolidated by the Tokugawa clan , who became the shōgun , and moved the capital to Edo , which became Tokyo . The emperor remained in Kyoto as a figurehead leader, with authority only over cultural and religious affairs. While

3773-461: The garden. Edo promenade gardens were often composed of a series of meisho , or "famous views", similar to postcards. These could be imitations of famous natural landscapes, like Mount Fuji , or scenes from Taoist or Buddhist legends, or landscapes illustrating verses of poetry. Unlike Zen gardens, they were designed to portray nature as it appeared, not the internal rules of nature. Well-known Edo-period gardens include: The Meiji period saw

3850-408: The gardens of nobles in the capital, the gardens of villas at the edge of the city, and the gardens of temples. The architecture of the palaces, residences and gardens in the Heian period followed Chinese practice. Houses and gardens were aligned on a north-south axis, with the residence to the north and the ceremonial buildings and main garden to the south, there were two long wings to the south, like

3927-443: The gardens of the Edo period were either promenade gardens or dry rock Zen gardens, and they were usually much larger than earlier gardens. The promenade gardens of the period made extensive use of borrowed scenery ( shakkei ). Vistas of distant mountains are integrated in the design of the garden; or, even better, building the garden on the side of a mountain and using the different elevations to attain views over landscapes outside

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4004-511: The herb alone and managed to meet each other. At first sight, they fell in love with each other. God , exasperated by their waywardness, separated the miserable couple, and laid a curse on them as a punishment: the flowers of Mañju shall never meet the leaves of Saka again. It was said that when the couple met after death in Diyu , they vowed to meet each other after reincarnation . However, neither of them could keep their word. In commemoration of

4081-465: The main pavilion, or from the "Hall of the Pure View", located on a higher elevation in the garden. In the east of the garden, on a peninsula, is an arrangement of stones designed to represent the mythical Mount Horai. A wooden bridge leads to an island representing a crane, and a stone bridge connects this island to another representing a tortoise, which is connected by an earth-covered bridge back to

4158-421: The modernization of Japan, and the re-opening of Japan to the West. Many of the old private gardens had been abandoned and left to ruin. In 1871, a new law transformed many gardens from the earlier Edo period into public parks, preserving them. Garden designers, confronted with ideas from the West experimented with western styles, leading to such gardens as Kyu-Furukawa Gardens , or Shinjuku Gyoen . Others, more in

4235-486: The most beautifully designed garden in Tokyo, and was once called the "most beautiful" scene in Japan. The site of the Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden was originally part of Tokyo Bay . The land was reclaimed between 1655 and 1658. In 1678 the site was used for the official samurai style residence of Ōkubo Tadamoto (1604–1670), member of the Ōkubo clan and an official of the Tokugawa shogunate . The residence garden

4312-575: The natural, serpentine course of the Kyuseki stream garden may be far less formal than what existed in Tang China. Whatever their origins, both the To-in and Kyuseki clearly anticipate certain developments in later Japanese gardens. In 794 CE, at the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185 CE), the Japanese court moved its capital to Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto ). During this period, there were three different kinds of gardens: palace gardens and

4389-442: The north of Japan kept to Edo period blueprint design. A third wave was the naturalistic style of gardens, invented by captains of industry and powerful politicians like Aritomo Yamagata . Many gardeners soon were designing and constructing gardens catering to this taste. One of the gardens well-known for his technical perfection in this style was Ogawa Jihei VII , also known as Ueji. Notable gardens of this period include: During

4466-420: The north side. The garden has an area of 43,070.53 m. There is a circular path around the central pond Sensui (9,000 m), which is the focus of the garden. Originally this was a salt water pond, however, as the land around was reclaimed the pond was converted to freshwater. The pond includes four islands, the central Nakajima and the smaller Ukishima , Oshima , and Yukimi-toro . Two bridges allow crossing of

4543-487: The peninsula. The garden also includes a waterfall at the foot of a wooded hill. One characteristic of the Momoyama period garden visible at Sanbō-in is the close proximity of the buildings to the water. The Momoyama period also saw the development of chanoyu (tea ceremony), the chashitsu (teahouse), and the roji (tea garden). Tea had been introduced to Japan from China by Buddhist monks, who used it as

4620-400: The period still existing is Sanbō-in , rebuilt by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598 to celebrate the festival of the cherry blossom and to recreate the splendor of an ancient garden. Three hundred garden-builders worked on the project, digging the lakes and installing seven hundred boulders in a space of 540 square metres (5,800 sq ft). The garden was designed to be seen from the veranda of

4697-418: The political center of Japan was now Tokyo, Kyoto remained the cultural capital, the center for religion and art. The shōgun provided the emperors with little power, but with generous subsidies for building gardens. The Edo period saw the widespread use of a new kind of Japanese architecture, called sukiya-zukuri , which means literally "building according to chosen taste". The term first appeared at

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4774-518: The pond via the larger island Nakajima . Oshima is close to the shore and can also be crossed. The inspiration for the pond originates from West Lake in Hangzhou , and the rocks on the central island represent the mountains of West Lake. One corner of the pond includes a sandy beach area named Suhama , although swimming is not recommended. The highest point of the park is the Oyama hill, from which

4851-530: The ponds and streams are carefully placed according to Buddhist geomancy , the art of putting things in the place most likely to attract good fortune. The rules for the placement of water were laid out in the first manual of Japanese gardens, the Sakuteiki ("Records of Garden Making") , in the 11th century. According to the Sakuteiki , water should enter the garden from the east or southeast and flow toward

4928-407: The porch of the residence the abbot of the monastery. There have been many debates about what the rocks are supposed to represent, but, as garden historian Gunter Nitschke wrote, "The garden at Ryōan-ji does not symbolize. It does not have the value of representing any natural beauty that can be found in the world, real or mythical. I consider it as an abstract composition of "natural" objects in space,

5005-406: The rich variety of flowers and different species of trees, particularly evergreen trees, on the islands, and by the four distinct seasons in Japan, including hot, wet summers and snowy winters. Japanese gardens have their roots in the national religion of Shinto , with its story of the creation of eight perfect islands, and of the shinchi , the lakes of the gods. Prehistoric Shinto shrines to

5082-577: The scenery. The social life in the gardens was memorably described in the classic Japanese novel The Tale of Genji , written in about 1005 by Murasaki Shikibu , a lady-in-waiting to the empress. The traces of one such artificial lake, Osawa no ike, near the Daikaku-ji temple in Kyoto, still can be seen. It was built by the Emperor Saga , who ruled from 809 to 823, and was said to be inspired by Dongting Lake in China. A scaled-down replica of

5159-460: The site was donated to Tokyo City as part of celebrations preceding the Shōwa period (1926 to 1989) of Emperor Hirohito . The garden was rebuilt and opened to the public on April 20, 1924. In 1979 the Government of Japan designated the garden as a place of scenic beauty and special historic interest . The size of the garden, however, was reduced to make space for the railway tracks on

5236-404: The south, which represents fire, which are opposites ( yin and yang ) and therefore will bring good luck. The Sakuteiki recommends several possible miniature landscapes using lakes and streams: the "ocean style", which features rocks that appear to have been eroded by waves, a sandy beach, and pine trees; the "broad river style", recreating the course of a large river, winding like a serpent;

5313-633: The southeastern United States, where they are often called hurricane flowers, due to their blooming period coinciding with the peak of hurricane season. In China, people often use them as decorations in festivals or celebrations. Since these scarlet flowers usually bloom near cemeteries around the autumnal equinox , they are described in Chinese and Japanese translations of the Lotus Sutra as ominous flowers that grow in Diyu (also known as Hell), or pinyin : Huángquán ( traditional Chinese : 黃泉 ; simplified Chinese : 黄泉 ), and guide

5390-419: The species of Lycoris presently recognized may not be distinct. Lycoris are extensively cultivated as ornamental plants in China and Japan, and also in other warm temperate regions of the world. In Japan, they are widely used at the edges of rice paddy fields to provide a strip of bright flowers in the summer, and over 230 cultivars have been selected for garden use. They are locally naturalised in

5467-636: The west, because the east is the home of the Green Dragon ( seiryu ), an ancient Chinese divinity adopted in Japan, and the west is the home of the White Tiger, the divinity of the east. Water flowing from east to west will carry away evil, and the owner of the garden will be healthy and have a long life. According to the Sakuteiki , another favorable arrangement is for the water to flow from north, which represents water in Buddhist cosmology, to

5544-621: The west. In the lake in front of the temple is a small island of white stones, representing Mount Horai, the home of the Eight Immortals of the Daoists, connected to the temple by a bridge, which symbolized the way to paradise. It was designed for mediation and contemplation, not as a pleasure garden. It was a lesson in Daoist and Buddhist philosophy created with landscape and architecture, and a prototype for future Japanese gardens. Notable existing or recreated Heian gardens include: The weakness of

5621-521: Was designed by garden designers from the Odawara Domain , until 1614 under the rule of daimyōs from the Ōkubo clan. The garden was then known as Rakujuen. At that time, the garden included a beach to Tokyo Bay, however, as Tokyo expanded the sea next to the garden was reclaimed , and there is no connection to the ocean anymore. A remaining ocean water inlet is not used. The residence changed ownership throughout time, and around 1860 belonged to

5698-568: Was originally the villa of Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1028), who married his daughters to the sons of the Emperor. After his death, his son transformed the villa into a temple, and in 1053 built the Hall of Phoenix, which still stands. The Hall is built in the traditional style of a Chinese Song dynasty temple, on an island in the lake. It houses a gilded statue of the Amitābha Buddha, looking to

5775-529: Was responsible for the building of the zen gardens of Nanzen-ji , Saihō-ji (the Moss Garden), and Tenryū-ji . Notable gardens of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods include: The Momoyama period was short, just 32 years, and was largely occupied with the wars between the daimyō , the leaders of the feudal Japanese clans. The new centers of power and culture in Japan were the fortified castles of

5852-406: Was the Zen garden, dry garden , or Japanese rock garden . One of the finest examples, and one of the best-known of all Japanese gardens is Ryōan-ji in Kyoto. This garden is just 9 metres (30 ft) wide and 24 metres (79 ft) long, composed of white sand carefully raked to suggest water, and fifteen rocks carefully arranged, like small islands. It is meant to be seen from a seated position on

5929-407: Was used for religious ceremonies and dances for the welcoming of the gods. The layout of the garden itself was strictly determined according to the principles of traditional Chinese geomancy , or Feng Shui . The first known book on the art of the Japanese garden, the Sakuteiki ( Records of Garden Keeping ), written in the 11th century, said: It is a good omen to make the stream arrive from

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