日本庭園

gardens

Snow, moon, and flowers

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D Kenroku-en in Kanazawa is designed to be equally stunning in every season.

Designed to reflect the seasons, the arrangement of Japanese gardens draws inspiration from the Shinto love of nature and the Buddhist concept of paradise. Classic Japanese gardens can be roughly divided into four types, but they all share many components and principles.

heaven on earth

Paradise gardens are designed to evoke the Pure Land, or Buddhist paradise, with Buddha meditating on an island in the middle of a lotus pond. One of the most famous examples is Byodo-in near Kyoto, with a pond that represents the Western Ocean, where the dead are reborn.

a space for meditation

Karesansui or “dry-landscape” gardens are also commonly known as Japanese rock or Zen gardens, because they often are part of the landscaping of Buddhist Zen temples. Intended to provide a focus for meditation, carefully chosen stones are grouped amid an expanse of raked gravel. The Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi (Shimane Prefecture) has won awards for its dry-landscape garden, but Ryoan-ji in Kyoto has perhaps the most iconic karesansui garden, featuring enigmatic rock formations that appear like miniature mountainous islands amid a sea of smooth pebbles raked into linear patterns.

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D Zen gardens such as Ryoan-ji in Kyoto use gravel to represent bodies of water.

changing vistas

Kaiyu-shiki or “stroll” gardens are designed for walking, and became popular during the Edo Period (1603–1868) at the villas of the nobility. Designed to be enjoyed as you follow a path clockwise around a central pond from one carefully composed scene to another, a beautiful example is Tokyo’s Rikugi-en, where the scenery is inspired by classical poetry.

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D Rikugi-en in Tokyo recreates 88 landscapes in miniature from famous poems.

tea gardens

A roji (meaning “dewy ground”) is the simple garden of a Japanese tea house. Designed to resemble a mountain trail leading from reality into the magical world of the tea ceremony, its greenery is mainly moss, ferns and evergreens, though there may also be trees such as maple or plum.

Be More Japan gardens

Japan’s Top Gardens

Three gardens rank above all others in Japan, as they are said to perfectly express setsugekka. Translating as “snow,” “moon,” and “flowers,” this term encapsulates the beautiful aspects of nature that you can experience in each of the gardens at different points in the year.

1 Kenroku-en This stroll garden in Kanazawa (Ishikawa Prefecture) embodies six virtues of the ideal garden: spaciousness, serenity, venerability, scenic views, subtle design, and coolness.

2 Koraku-en Completed in 1700, this scenic stroll garden in Okayama (Okayama Prefecture) features a path circumnavigating a central pond, which contains three islands that replicate the scenery around Lake Biwa near Kyoto.

3 Kairaku-en Located in Mito (Ibaraki Prefecture), this garden is famous for its 100 different types of plum trees that explode into blossom in February. It is unique in that it was designed as a public park rather than a private garden.

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