Traditional Arts and Crafts-Gardens

Gardens

The main consideration in the gardens of Japan, China and Korea is on natural scenic beauty, which is in contrast to the gardens of the West in which the emphasis is on beauty of geometrical form. However, by “natural scenic beauty” is not meant nature in its original, unchanged forms. Rather, natural materials such as trees, shrubs and rocks are used to symbolize or emphasize the forms and features of the natural landscape, thereby creating an artificial spatial beauty that
has a harmonic unity.

The history of landscape gardening spans a thousand years, during which styles have changed as one age gave way to the next. Broadly speaking, there are the miniature artificial hill style (tsukiyama), where a central pond symbolizes the sea, mountains are represented by banks of earth and arrangements of rocks; and the dry garden style (karesansui), in which the sea is symbolized not by water but by a layer of white sand, is given a pattern of furrows to represent rippling movement of the water, and waterfalls are symbolized by an arrangement of blue rocks.

The gardens of Tenryu Temple and Saiho Temple in Kyoto are examples of the former style, and those of Ryoan Temple and Daitoku Temple’s Daisen-in, also in Kyoto, are examples of the latter style.

Famous examples of gardens which, in addition to incorporating the above features, utilize the views of surrounding mountains and woods (shakkei) include the Katsura Imperial Villa, both in Kyoto.

【日本語訳】
庭園
　日本・中国・朝鮮の庭園は、自然の景観美を主とするものであって、幾何学的な美しさを重視する西洋の庭園とは対照的である。自然の景観美といっても、自然そのままの姿ではない。樹木・石など自然の材料を用いて自然の山水のたたずまいを抽象化し、あるいは強調して一つのまとまりのある調和した人工的空間美を形成する。
　１０００年にわたる庭園の歴史の中で、時代の推移と共にその様式も変化する。大別して、中心の池で大海を表し、土を盛り岩を配して山を表す形式（築山式）と、水を使用せず白砂を敷いて大海を、砂紋によって流れを表現し、青石を立てて滝を象徴させる形式（枯山水式）がある。
　京都の天竜寺や西芳寺の庭園が前者の竜安寺や大徳寺大仙院の庭園が後者の例である。
　こうした日本庭園のそれぞれの特徴をすべて取り入れたうえ、庭園外の山や樹木をも遠景として活用した（借景）庭園としては、京都の桂離宮や修学院離宮などが有名である。