AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 261 



7. Gardening. 



Size^ Enclosure^ and Character of the Japanese Garden. — Limited 

 Expedients and PecnliaiHties of Gardening. — Dwarfing arid 

 Deforming. — Improvement of Species. — Variegation. — The 

 Japanese L ove of Nature and Flowers. — Flozvering Season arid 

 other characteristics of the Flora. — Shade Trees, 



Enclosed fruit and vegetable gardens, such as are usually found 

 with us around the dwelling, are unknown to the Japanese. He 

 plants his Yasai-mono (see p. 69) on the Hatake, or Sai-yen, the 

 vegetable ground in the open field. He calls the fenced tree- 

 nursery Uye-gomi, and the little ornamental garden, commonly 

 behind the house,^ Niwa (Sono is the poetical expression) or 

 K6-yen. It is the Niwa which chiefly interests us. 



Siebold says^ that even in the large cities there is scarcely a 

 house which has not its garden, or at least a court adorned with 

 one or more evergreen trees. This idea has become very preva- 

 lent, but it is nevertheless erroneous. Extensive journeys through 

 different portions of the three principal islands of Old Japan, and 

 numerous observations in cities and country, have convinced me 

 that only a small proportion of dwellings have any ornamental or 

 particularly cultivated piece of ground about them, and that these 

 are only to be found in the homes of the cultured and wealthy 

 classes. The following Japanese couplet, which Dr. R. Lange has 

 well translated into German, agrees with this observation : 



" Ob auch des Lenzes Macht an alien Orten sich zeiget, 

 Findest du Blumen doch nicht bliihend in jeglichem Dorf." ^ 



Even the already noted substitute for a garden — the court with its 

 few evergreen trees (more properly bushes) — although frequently 

 seen, is still only an exception. The two shrubs which are found 

 most often in these narrow courtyards are the Toshuro {Raphis 

 flabelliformis, Ait), a kind of fan palm, about 2 m. in height, and 

 even more generally, the Nanten {Nandina domestica, Thunb.), a 

 bush which seldom grows more than I to 2 m. high. Its trunk, 

 when old, is covered with rugged bark. It bears red berry clusters 

 in winter, and is a favourite house-decoration at the New Year. 

 It often furnishes a pattern to the ornamental work of Art In- 

 dustry, its leaves being wrought in silk, the berries in glass, painted 

 with red cinnabar. The Nandina grows wild in Shikoku. 



The enclosures (Jap. Kaki) of gardens and parks differ greatly. 



^ K6-yen-chi (public garden ground) is a temple garden, a sort of open park ; 

 as, for example, those of Uyeno and Shiba in Tokio. 



" " Sur I'etat de I'horticulture au Japon," p. 2. Leide, 1863. 



^ " Haru no iro-no itari itaranu sato wa araji | sakeru sakazaru hana no 

 miyuramu." — Old Japanese spring-songs, translated and versified by Dr. R. 

 Lange. Berlin: Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung, 1884. 



