Architecture in Japanese Gardens - Research Paper Example

Architecture in Japanese Gardens The history of the Japanese garden, which is clearly intertwined with principles of Japanese architecture, is one that helps to define the Japanese culture and history. This is because gardening has been an important cultural, intellectual, and spiritual pursuit in Japan for almost 1300 years in various ways and to various people. Japanese gardens also show the influence that the Chinese culture had on the Japanese, as well as how Japan took that culture and changed it in subtle ways to make it its own. The philosophical ideas of Zen Buddhism also played a large role in the development of these important cultural objects and practices. Chesshire splits the history of gardening into Japan into six broad periods, each of which takes its title from important Japanese cities at the time. The first of these is the Nara period of the 8th century, where gardens that were “almost certainly used for ceremonial purposes” and “were quite similar to those that were constructed in China” were created in Nara, which was one of the ancient capitals of Japan. (Chesshire 10) This period is followed by the Heian period, also heavily influenced by developments in China. This period was one of “a great many refinements” in terms of gardening, brought about by the importing to Japan of Pure Land Buddhism, which created “pond and island gardens that reproduced the Mystic Isles of the immortals” in Buddhist mythology. (Chesshire 10) This is in contrast to the native Japanese religion of Shinto, which was still adhered to even though the Japanese government still accepted Buddhist principles. Gardens in this period also became more focused on ritual and ceremony than before, whether those ceremonies were religious in nature like the Buddhist ones or whether they involved the “court ceremonies, music and poetry readings” favored by the ruling class. (Chesshire 10) In the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, which last from the late 12th to late 16th centuries, the Chinese Buddhist influence was felt yet again due to of Zen Buddhist monks. It is this period that rocks started to become widely used in the creation of gardens, especially those created by Zen monks. This again shows how important China is on Japanese culture, since that is where Zen was imported from. The Muromachi period saw the importance of architecture as well, as important buildings like the Golden and Silver pavilions had “pond-filled stroll gardens” in them. However, the most important development here was the use of gravel or sand to create “dry water” gardens, something that would remain a central part of many future gardens. (Chesshire 11) The Momoyama period did not see much creative expansion, but did see the inclusion of an element at least as important as gravel and sand. That element was the tea house, which shows yet again the intersection of gardens with architecture. In the Edo period, which was when Japan was isolated from the rest of the world, gardens began to stagnate, “losing the creative edge and philosophical depth of their predecessors.” (Chesshire 11) However, since that period ended, modern Japanese Gardens have tried to draw on the best of both worlds. Today, many Japanese gardens try to incorporate “the minimalism of Zen and more avant-garde and naturalistic styles” while still exploring traditional ideas. (Chesshire 11) Historical periods aside, when talking about “Classical” Japanese gardening there are five main styles. These are pond gardens, dry gardens, tea gardens, stroll gardens and courtyard gardens, and each one serves a different purpose based on the amount of land available and what you intend to use the garden for. The pond garden has as its central feature just what youd expect from the name, although it doesnt necessarily have to be a pond. The important thing is to have some kind of body of water around which the garden as a whole is built. This is because the water is supposed to instill “a sense of tranquility, joy and calm.” (Chesshire 42) Pond gardens, according to Chesshire, are popular because they remind people of the 11th century, when Japanese culture was just beginning to be in full swing. (42) As with all kinds of gardens, it is important to make the garden look as though it were naturally occuring. One interesting feature about the pond garden is that it is common to create islands in the middle of the water that call to mind parts of animals. The two most famous examples of these are turtle and crane islands, but it is important to note that they are just abstract representations and not literal ones. (Chesshire 44) Dry gardens are the second type of Japanese garden. They are commonly known outside of Japan as Zen Gardens, because it was the influence of Zen Buddhist priests who really made this sort of garden popular historically speaking. (Chesshire 46) These types of dry gardens are particularly connected with architecture because they were often connected to Zen temples, and had to incorporate aspects of that in their creation as they were usually built next to or as part of the rooms of the important people at the Zen temples. Because of this, dry gardens show “the interplay between geometric manmade and irregular natural forms” that make them such a good example of the interaction between manmade architecture and natural garden-like atmospheres. (Chesshire 47) Even more so than dry gardens, tea gardens are by necessity mixed together with the idea of architecture. This is because the main focal point of a tea garden is a tea house, which is itself an architectural object. The first tea houses, built in the 16th century, were built with a simplistic style on purpose, because they were supposed to echo the “mountainside hermitages of the Chinese sages” that the people who built them wished to imitate. (Chesshire 50) In this case, the garden works with the architecture of the tea house to try and create a more rural setting in the mind of the viewer, since these gardens were usually built by wealthy merchants and people who lived in the cities of Japan. One interesting thing is the idea of a “tea path,” which is supposed to represent going through a sort of “wilderness” space. (Chesshire 52) Of all the garden types, the stroll garden is probably most like the European idea of a garden. Unlike other types of garden, “the emphasis in a stroll garden was on the paths that wound among a new set of garden motifs.” (Chesshire 53) Architecture was important again here because they often had buildings or parts of buildings, such as “bamboo fences and bridges of all kinds.” (Chesshire 53) These buildings not only served functional purposes like actually letting you walk around the garden, but were also there for purposes of contrast. Much like the Zen-inspired dry gardens, this type of garden also seems to encourage the clash of man-made items with the wild shapes of nature. Perhaps the most architecturally related garden of all, though, is the courtyard garden, for obvious reasons. This type of garden is usually built as an “extension to the house,” (Chesshire 58) so obviously what kind of house you had or how you wished to change the way it looked would play a large part in the creation of your garden. Many of the famous examples of courtyard gardens combine natural elements like plants and rocks with the existing structure of the house in a way that “illustrates the exceptional artistry of combining natural forms with the geometric,” much like Dry gardens. (Chesshire 59) As can be seen from all the types of garden, and also partly from the history of the Japanese garden, architecture plays an important role in many ways. For instance, in the dry and courtyard gardens, “the forms of the gardens themselves are more like paintings held within a picture frame,” which is surely an architectural idea instead of one that would normally be associated with gardening. (Chesshire 30) In the earlier time periods of Japanese gardening, the buildings and structures used were more or less just copies of the Chinese gardens they were copying. This included ostentatiously painted buildings and sometimes bridges and other buildings “were painted bright red-orange, in dramatic contrast” to the muted colors elsewhere in the garden. (Chesshire 31) Eventually, though, the Japanese started to branch out and put their own distinctive touch on garden architecture. It is more common now to use natural materials “such as bamboo, reed, and sawn or raw timber” which are not painted in order to “look as natural as possible.” (Chesshire 31) This is different from the classical Chinese approach which seeks to draw attention to the manmade items, although Japanese gardens still do this in different ways. Framing is one of the most fundamental architectural ideas that is important to Japanese gardens. By using the form of the existing house, and by building the ends of the garden in specific ways, it is possible to use architectural principles and forms to draw “prominent distant features … into the garden itself.” (Chesshire 32) It is important to note that this was not just done to “Get a nice view” but for reasons of “composition,” showing both the importance of architecture to gardening and that it is used for deep artistic reasons. (Chesshire 32) Basically the pieces of architecture are used to highlight the garden, not just as things that happen to mark where the garden ends and the house begins, for example. Houses themselves, of course, are also an important architectural part of many styles of Japanese Garden. As mentioned above, the tea garden would not be possible without a tea house at its center. Sliding panel doors, rice paper windows, and thatched roofing, all of which are associated with more rural Japan or at least more simplistic times of long ago, are important parts of the construction of buildings that are going to be in Japanese gardens, even though many Japanese houses are not like that any more. (Chesshire 33) As can be seen from all of these examples, the idea of architecture is one that is unavoidably mixed with the history of Japanese Gardens. Regardless of what the effect of the garden is, there is no doubt that those who wish to create one will have to use not only plants and water, but also rocks, bridges, and even sometimes an entire building. Moreover, since the gardens can be built as a part of a house in and of itself, it can sometimes be even more important to have a good idea of basic architectural principles. In fact, it is arguably this sort of mixing of the manmade with the natural that is the defining idea of the Japanese garden. Works Cited Chesshire, Charles. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Print. Read More