How do you create a stunning Japanese garden?

The simplicity and serenity of Japanese gardens make them ideal settings for contemplation and relaxation. Consisting largely of evergreens, rocks, pebbles, sand, ponds, and waterfalls, they put the opulence of many Western garden designs to shame. In most cases, the garden’s architecture is spare and unadorned, preferring to let the garden’s natural setting take centre stage. The gardens include weathered and natural features and employ bold colours to depict the changing seasons.

Japanese garden designs often include plants and weathered, aged items to evoke a sense of the natural world and to reflect on the transience of life and the relentless march of time. In the past, Japanese art served as an inspiration for landscape architects. Many gardens also have pebbles and sometimes even gravel, in addition to water. Despite the fact that Japan is home to many beautiful flowering plants, herbaceous flowers play a much smaller role in Japanese gardens than they do in Western gardens. However, flowering shrubs and trees play an important role, especially since they stand out so dramatically against the typically dominant greenery.

See also: What are the medicinal benefits of Camellia Japonica aka Japanese Camellia?

Japanese garden: Elements

Water features like waterfalls, streams, and ponds are often well-received. The absence of water is represented by sand in dry rock gardens, often known as Zen gardens. Buddhists see water and stone as the yin and yang, the two opposing forces that complete and balance one another. Ancient landscape designs often include ponds arranged in an asymmetrical fashion, mimicking their natural settings. Waterfalls symbolise a smaller version of Japanese mountain streams, while ponds stand in for the ocean or a lake.

As a key component of a Japanese garden, rocks have a variety of metaphorical meanings:
- Whether it’s Mount Horai, Sumuru, or a leaping carp, a vertical rock is always impressive.
- Horizontal igneous slabs, either islands or the planet.
- Ocean or rushing river, both made of sand and gravel.
- Rugged volcanic rock, mountain ranges.

Careful compositions of two, three, five, or seven rocks are used, with the most typical composition size being three. Humanity stands as the connecting link between the two larger rocks, which often symbolise heaven and earth, respectively. Some pebbles, known as suteishi (which literally means “nameless” or “discarded”), are strategically put in what seem to be random positions around the garden.

Trees are picked for their fall foliage, while flowers are picked for their blooming time. Moss is a common way to give the impression that the garden is very old. Seasonality is also taken into account while selecting flowers. Modern gardens are more likely to have formal flower beds.

Wooden, stone, or logs coated in dirt and moss are common materials for such bridges since they are seen as symbols of the road to heaven and eternal life. Stone (ishibashi) or wood (soribashi) or logs (dobashi) with dirt and moss on top were all viable materials for constructing bridges (hirabashi).

Like the pagoda, a dai-dr in its full and unaltered form symbolises the five components of Buddhist cosmology. Chi, the earth, is symbolised by the bottom portion; sui, water; ka, fire; the top section that contains the lantern’s light or flame; and f and k, air and emptiness, respectively. In tea gardens, guests are provided with stone water basins for the express purpose of washing their hands and mouths before partaking in the actual tea ceremony.

The Japanese garden koi, or koi carp, is a domesticated variety of the common carp. Koi (sometimes spelled nishikigoi) is often used as a sign of affection in Japan. Some gardens also include turtle ponds in addition to fish ponds.

Japanese garden: Types

There are many different types of Japanese gardens.

Tea garden

The garden serves as a vital tool for easing the minds of visitors. As they make their way from the garden’s entrance to the tea room, attendees engage in a series of rituals designed to get them in the appropriate frame of mind for the next ceremony.