Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GARDENS
Many of Japan's most famous gardens are to be found in Kyoto, and no trip here would be
complete without a visit to at least a few of them. Most of the well-known ones, whose
characteristics are described below, are connected to temples or imperial villas. In addition
to these, Kyoto's traditional dwellings and shops feature another type of garden called
tsubo-niwa
- tiny inner gardens that bring light into the building and provide its inhabitants
with a sense of the seasons.
Japanese gardens make use of various ingenious devices to achieve their effect.
Shakkei,
or 'borrowed scenery', is one such clever design ploy, by which a distant object, such as a
mountain or volcano cone, is incorporated into garden's design, adding depth and impact.
Kyoto's garden designers obviously never anticipated urban sprawl. A nice example of
tains into the garden design.
Japanese gardens fall into four basic types:
funa asobi
(pleasure boat),
shūyū
(stroll),
kanshō
(contemplative) and
kaiyū
(varied pleasures).
Funa Asobi
Popular in the Heian period,
funa asobi
gardens featured a large pond used for pleasure
boating. Such gardens were often built around noble mansions. The garden which sur-
Shūyū
The
shūyū
garden is intended to be viewed from a winding path, allowing the garden to un-
fold and reveal itself in stages and from different vantages. Popular during the Heian, Ka-
makura and Muromachi periods,
shūyū
gardens can be found around many noble mansions
The garden at the Zuihō-in subtemple at Daitoku-ji contains stones laid out in the form of the
Christian cross. This subtemple was established to honour the Christian Daimyō Ōtomo
Sōrin. The stones were arranged in a cross pattern in the 1960s.
Kanshō
The
kanshō
garden is intended to be viewed from one place. Zen rock gardens, also known
as
kare-sansui
gardens, are an example of this type, which were designed to aid contempla-
