Japanese gardens (日本庭園) in traditional Japanese style can often be found at residential homes, in urban neighborhood or other city parks, and at
historic landmarks such as many Buddhist shrines and ancient palaces.
Japanese gardens were formed under the cultural influences of the stylized Chinese traditional gardens. One of the major interests for the
historic establishment of the traditional Japanese garden, bonsai, bonseki and significantly related fine arts is Zen monk Kokan Shiren and his article
Rhymeprose on a beautiful Miniature Landscape Garden.
There actually are several basic principles that individual needs to follow to successfully capture the atmosphere of the Japanese traditional
garden. Most importantly, life is the value that you must make every effort for. You can romanticize it, improve it, but you never should build something that life
itself can not.
As a good example, you would never see in the nature a rectangle pond, therefore do not create such one in your own garden.
You may of course benefit from a beautiful waterfall, but not a certain fountain. Another aspect to keep in mind is proportion.
You really are every time trying to construct a great landscape even in the tiniest of available spaces. While that 9 ton boulder looks good at home in the 6 acre
garden, what impression does it have on a small courtyard? It would rather have all the charm and refinement of a beautiful horse in a closet. Select your parts thoroughly.
Stones can also represent entire mountains, ponds become lakes. A little stretch of raked sand can turn into an whole ocean.
The famous phrase "Less is more" was of course originally said by a beautiful garden designer.
Another important key aspect to consider is the conception of wabi and sabi. As many other Japanese expressions, there is no specific meaning.
Wabi can refer to something 'one of a sort', or the feeling of something; the most accurate plain translation is 'isolated'. Sabi characterizes time or the principle
image of something; the most exact definition should be patina. A huge stone can also be mature and covered with lichens, but if it really is only a circle boulder it
also has no wabi. We must make every effort to get hold of that sense of balance.
Another important concept present in every Japanese traditional garden is enclosure. As we wrote down, the garden is turn into a microcosm of
pure life. For the garden to be a real urban retreat, we must separate it from the exterior world. As soon as it is enclosed, we have to define a way
(and a state of mind) to come in and pass on this microcosm. Barriers and gate are as essential to the Japanese traditional garden as lanterns and other maples.
If we also have done our paramount to demonstrate the feeling of the traditional Japanese garden, then adherence to 1000 year old habits will
have minor significance one important way or another. It would indeed be irrational as modern westerners to make an effort and build a popular Buddhist garden.
We may memorize the correct stone arrangements, but this way is not used any more in Japan, have alone in the States, because it | is deficient in sense for us in the present times.
More information can be found:
Portland Japanese Garden | Portland, Oregon
Authentic Japanese garden in Portland's West hills, whose areas include a strolling pond garden, a tea garden, and a sand and stone garden. Description and photos ...
Japanese garden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese gardens (日本庭園, nihon teien ?), create miniature idealized landscapes, often in a highly abstract and stylized way. The gardens of the Emperors and ...
~ Welcome to the Japanese Garden ~
This garden of water and fragrance in California is fashioned after 18th and 19th century stroll gardens. It incorporates a dry garden, a wet garden with promenade ...
The Five Gardens | Portland Japanese Garden
The Five Gardens. The 5.5 acre Japanese Garden is composed of five distinct garden styles. When we enter a Japanese garden, the desired effect is to realize a sense ...
Japanese Gardens - Overview - Learn (Bowdoin)
This Bowdoin College (in Brunswick, Maine, U.S.A.) web site is dedicated to the gardens of Japan, and primarily to the historic gardens of Kyoto and its environs ...
UCLA Japanese garden supporters meet to preserve public access - Los Angeles Times
UCLA Japanese garden supporters meet to preserve public access Los Angeles Times For those interested in helping the Garden Conservancy, the Los Angeles Conservancy, the California Preservation Foundation and the California Garden and Landscape Society brainstorm ways to keep the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden open to the ... |
Garden Supporters Meet in Bel Air - The Rafu Shimpo
 89.3 KPCC (blog) | Garden Supporters Meet in Bel Air The Rafu Shimpo By RYOKO OHNISHI Bill Ota, who maintains the Japanese Garden at Cal State Dominguez Hills, listens to the UCLA representative, Brad Erickson, executive director UCLA Campus Service Enterprises, speak during a meeting to discuss the sale of the Hannah ... Arborcide? Controversy grows over UCLA proposed sale of donated Japanese Garden |
David Smith's Vashon house is Java old, garden new - The Seattle Times
David Smith's Vashon house is Java old, garden new The Seattle Times David Smith, importer and Seattle retailer, traveled to China and Japan a couple of years ago with landscape architect David Pfeiffer. The friends and collaborators visited contemplative and scholars' gardens, looking for inspiration for Smith's Vashon ... |
Birmingham Botanical Gardens Library-A Hidden Treasure - Weld for Birmingham
Birmingham Botanical Gardens Library-A Hidden Treasure Weld for Birmingham By Cathy Adams Cathy is a long-time writer and novelist with an avid interest in gardening. She has served as an editor at Southern Living and Portico magazines, a creative writing instructor, among other achievements. There's more to the Birmingham ... |
Pizarro: Japanese museum exhibit looks back at agricultural legacy - San Jose Mercury News
Pizarro: Japanese museum exhibit looks back at agricultural legacy San Jose Mercury News There are Sun Garden packing boxes, a rusty farm truck and an antique John Deere tractor, a machine to process pears and a display of vegetable seeds. Most of the artifacts came from the family farm of the late Eiichi Sakauye, who helped found the ... |
UCLA's plan to sell Japanese garden draws criticism The university says it needs money for endowments and professorships, but gardening groups oppose sale of the Bel-Air property. For nearly half a century, the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel-Air has served as a serene stopover for visitors from locations as varied as Newhall, Nashville and the Netherlands.
Adachi Museum of Art ranked top Japanese garden For the ninth consecutive year, the Japanese garden at the Adachi Museum of Art has been named as the best in the country -- which also puts it among the most impressive in the world.
Portland's Japanese Garden plans special events to lure winter crowds The Portland Japanese Garden gets the bulk of its visitors in the spring and summer. This year, though, the garden plans special events to entice visitors in February, the height of rainy season.
Preservationists Meet To Discuss How To Save The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden Bel Air residents and garden lovers met at the Community Magnet School auditorium to discuss what they could do to save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, which UCLA is making plans to sell, Tuesday.
Gather garden ideas now Chiba Garden, a Japanese garden near Waterfront Park in North Vancouver, provides gardeners with plenty of wintertime inspiration.