PLATES XXIII. AND XXIV. . 



GENTLEMAN'S GARDEN, FUKAGAWA. 



Fukagawa, one of the busiest and most crowded parts of Tokio, possesses 

 a fine garden, constructed within recent years with all the taste and skill Btht wealth 

 can command. As in the case of nearly all important grounds, especially those laid out 

 as this is near a river or canal, the controlling feature of the design is a large and 

 irregular lake. Plate XXIII. illustrates what is intended as the principal or central view 

 of the garden from a point immediately in front of the main Japanese residence. In 

 the background is a high garden hill, somewhat conical in form but with an irregular 

 summit, near the base of which the semblance of a stream is produced by a winding 

 bed of broken stones tending to a group of precipitous rocks which indicate the 

 position of a supposed cascade. Here may be recognized the " Guardian Stone," 

 " Cliff Stone," and other essential rocks which always distinguish a garden waterfall. 

 The hill and artificial stream may be taken to express the idea of Mount Fuji and 

 the Fuji-kawa, though the representation is remarkable for great freedom of treatment. 

 In the foreground, on the right, is discovered the beach of one of the peninsulas of 

 the lake, with a magnificent granite lantern, fine scoriated rocks, and a characteristic 

 example of the leaning pine-trees which the gardeners of the country train over the 

 water, and with which these grounds are crowded. The whole perimeter of the lake 

 is ornamented with stones and rocks of great rarity and variety. Plate XXIV. 

 presents another vista of the lake at a point where two of its wooded islets nearly 

 meet, leaving a connecting sand-bank planted with water reeds and rushes. Beyond 

 this beach my be seen a peep of the head of the lake, with the distant Fuji-san 

 and cascade-mouth. This is by far the most picturesque view of the garden, though 

 the effect is said to have been to some extent accidentally produced. In this illustra- 

 may be seen a number of the carefully selected rocks which have been collected 

 from various parts of the country. 



