The principal structure of a Japanese garden is dependent on the structure that contain it, that is, the frame of enduring elements such as buildings, verandas and terraces, paths, tsukiyama (artificial hills), and rock compositions. It’s best to set in little places or areas without enough light or venting required for a conventional garden.
Zen Thoughts
There’s a wide assortment of Zen thought in the Japanese garden. Here are some key components as examples:
Gates (torii), fences, straw ropes, and fabric banners acted as signs to demarcate paces.
Bridges (hashi), passing across the bridge was analogous to passing from one world to another. As Zen influence came to the forefront, bridges took on the Taoist significance of departure from the world of man to the world of nature, a move from the plane to a higher one
Water (Mizu), Buddhism always believed water that the most apt metaphor for human existence, springing up, gathering strength in its downhill race to evaporate peacefully into the sea (reborn again as rain). In ponds in the garden, it creates “negative” area in the garden where nothing else resides.
Plantings
Although Zen actually diminished the plant palette when it came, nevertheless there are a couple of Zen thoughts in the plantings. Large bamboo are usually found in temple gardens because the canes are a perfect illustration of the principle of mushin or “empty heart” (the empty heart offers strength through flexibility). Plums are a perennial nautical motif, flowering without foliage, often while snow is still on the floor (representing durability and rebirth). Pine is called mutsu, a sound-alike for the term for ‘waiting’, so it’s put in the garden as a symbol of patience and strength.
Shrines were more of a psychological construct than bodily emplacements, a place that existed in the brain rather than a location that could be viewed. The shrine is a feeling of soul. Additionally it is a place where people and soul meet.
Sand and Gravel
Sand or gravel represents water. Raked or not raked, that signifies sea, ocean, lakes or rivers.
The act of raking the gravel into a routine remembering waves or rippling water has a decorative purpose. Zen priests clinic this raking and to help their concentration. Achieving perfection of lines isn’t straightforward. Rakes are based on the patterns of ridges as desirable and restricted to a number of the rock objects located within the gravel area. Nonetheless often the patterns aren’t static. Developing variations in patterns is a creative and inspirational challenge.
Stones
Stones are the significant elements of design in Japanese garden. They’re considered more important than trees into the Japanese, perhaps because of the strong desire for eternity and stones signify the eternal elements in character. In Japanese garden design, stones are used in conjunction with other stones, or sand to indicate a natural scene or to make an abstract design. The shapes of natural stones are split into five groups called five natural stones. The Japanese used the characters of timber, fire, earth, metal and water to signify stone components, and are employed to five types of rock shapes:
- Taido: timber. Tall vertical. Implies high trees. Also called body stones, placed in the rear of a grouping.
- Reisho: alloy. Low vertical. Implies the steady and stability of metal. Often grouped with tall verticals. It’s sometimes referred to as soul stones.
- Shigyo: fire. Arching. Branches that shape like flame. These kinds of branches known as stone air and peeing stones. Often set in the front and to one side of different shapes.
- Shintai: water. Flat or horizontal. Called level foundation stones or mind and body rock. Usually used for harmonization in stone groupings.
- Kikyaku: ground. Reclining. Often called root or prostrate stones. Usually set in the foreground to make a harmony look.
Message in Zen Garden
The message in Zen Garden is that every split area remains representative of all of nature; the fencing helps us to comprehend the branch and the garden should remind us of the whole. The gates in fences are very similar to the bridge in profound significance; the term “to proceed through the gate” is a metaphor for becoming a monk.
