Japanese Gardens
The role of gardens play a much more important role in Japan than here in the United States. This is due primarily to the fact the Japanese garden embodies native values, cultural beliefs and religious principles. Perhaps this is why there is no one prototype for the Japanese garden, just as there is no one native philosophy or aesthetic. In this way, similar to other forms of Japanese art, landscape design is constantly evolving due to exposure to outside influences, mainly Chinese, that effect not only changing aesthetic tastes but also the values of patrons. In observing a Japanese garden, it is important to remember that the line between the garden and the landscape that surrounds it is not separate. Instead, the two are forever merged, serving as the total embodiment of the one another. Every aspect of the landscape is in itself a garden. Also when observing the garden, the visitor is not supposed to distinguish the garden from its architecture. Gardens in Japan incorporate both natural and artificial elements, therefor uniting nature and architecture into one entity. Japanese gardens also express the ultimate connection between humankind and nature, for these gardens are not only decor
Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavilion (1394), serves as an example of this Shinden type. The site in northern Kyoto was developed as a large retirement estate by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1409) beginning in 1394. It has been recorded that the actual emperor of Japan visited Kinkakuji in 1408, the first time an emperor had ever stayed with a person that was not a member of the imperial court. On its north side is located the long verandah where the visitors appreciate the garden. In understanding this garden's function one must realize that it "relies on understatement, simplicity, suggestion and implication. According to wabi, value is determined in what is wathered by time as opposed to the new and untouched. Both the Heian stroll garden of Kinkakuji and the Zen garden of Ryoanji express very different fundamentals in the art of garden design. All of these elements, tough decorative, hold symbolic meanings. McGraw-Hill series in Landscape and Landscape Architecture. The rocks play an essential role in the design of this garden, while maintain two functions. Wabi refers to the poverty or rusticness; a preference for the old and worn.
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