PLATE XXXIX. 



SHIRASE-NO-NIWA, NIIGATA. 



This illustration represents a lake-garden which is remarkable for its extreme 

 artificiality and for a preponderance of redundant detail. Nearly all the trees in 

 this design consist of a particular kind of pine, trimmed in the tama-tsukuri style, 

 a method by which each tuft of foliage is cut into a disc-like form. The borders 

 of the irregular lake are crowded with numerous stones and boulders, with shrubs, 

 water-plants, and grasses, planted between them. Though there is constant repetition 

 of similar detail in this design, the arrangement is distinguished by considerable 

 variety. The level walk in front of the residence has a row of stepping stones and 

 a granite lantern; a few turfed hillocks, planted with the ever-recurring pine, and 

 a summer-house, may be seen in the background. A bamboo fence and roofed 

 gateway mark the position of the garden entrance. It is said that the extremely 

 artificial treatment displayed in the trees and rockeries of this example is particularly 

 characteristic of the style of landscape gardening as developed on the Western coast 

 of Japan. 



