Studio: international art (84.1922)

THE JAPANESE GARDEN. BY JIRO principles have been evolved governing the
HARADA a a 0 0 a relative proportions of pond and hills,

establishing proper positions of rocks and

THE love of Nature, strongly innate in trees, stone lanterns and basins, etc. But
the people, is artistically manifested in Nature has always been the real teacher, to
the deep and universal appreciation and whom all master gardeners have turned for
development of gardens in Nippon. The guidance and inspiration. Many have
garden is an integral part of the house, succeeded in reproducing beautiful bits of
Some have extensive and costly gardens, some famous natural scenes in their gardens,
while others, living in shanties with no Thus a big garden may have, in repro-
spare ground to plant trees and grass, con- duction, the eight beautiful scenes of Biwa
trive to satisfy their natural desire by Lake, and another may have one or more
placing a few pots of flowers or shrubs of the three places in the Empire celebrated
along the fence or by growing a few plants for their scenic beauty : Miyajima, Amano
in a box outside the window. Even a shop Hashidate and Matsushima. 0 a
uses a few inches of spare ground in front There are many kinds or styles of garden,
for planting something green. The craving but they may be classified under two head-
for Nature is so strong that it is but ings : sansui (mountains and water style)
common to see an ordinary mechanic with and hira-niwa (flat gardens), both capable
a dwarf tree in a pot or a vase of flowers by of being treated in three different ways :
his working stool, or to see him diligently shin (strict and formal), gyo (slightly less
watering in his spare moments a rock
shaped like a mountain, which he happened
to pick up somewhere, deriving immense
pleasure from seeing green moss gather on its
surface as he goes on with weeks and
months of patient care. Ikebana (the art of
flower arranging), bonseki (the art of draw-
ing landscape on black lacquer trays with
different grades of sands and rocks), hako-
niwa (box gardens) and similar arts have
made very interesting and peculiar develop-
ment among the Nature-loving people of
Nippon. However, it is our purpose here
to deal, in a limited way, only with the
gardens, which are called niwa, or teiven.

The strong desire of the people to enjoy
Nature at their own homes has called forth
great masters of gardening for centuries
past, who have brought the art well nigh to
perfection. Gardening is, indeed, an art—a
fine art, not easily acquired. It requires a
deep understanding of Nature. To be a
master in it, one must be familiar with the
secret art of Nature, sensitive to her moods,
and be an artist of high attainment to be
able to reproduce natural charms. Being
such, it is understandable that Kobori
Enshu, early in the seventeenth century,
only undertook to lay out the landscape
garden of the Katsura Palace, near Kyoto,
on three conditions : unlimited time, no
limitation to expenditure, and no interfer-
ence until completion. 00a lantern in mf. harada's

„,. , « , , r 1 • cha-seki (tea-room)

With the development of the art, certain garden in tokyo

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