ITntrobuction 9 



At the same time Koempfer the Dutch botanist and 

 traveller thus wrote home about Japanese gardens: 



"A Japanese Garden must be at least 30 feet 

 square and consist of the following essential parts. 



" 1st : The ground is partly covered with roundish 

 stones — the large being laid in the middle as a path 

 to walk on without injuring the gravel, the whole in 

 a seeming but ingenious confusion. 



"2nd: Some few flower bearing plants planted 

 confusedly though not without some certain rules. 

 Amidst the plants stands sometimes a Saguer as 

 they call it, a strange outlandish tree, sometimes 

 a dwarf tree or two. 



"3rd: A small rock or hill in the corner of the 

 garden made in imitation of nature curiously adorned 

 with birds and insects cast in brass and placed 

 between the stones,"sometimes the model of a temple 

 stands upon it, built, as for the sake of the prospect 

 they generally are, on a remarkable eminence on the 

 borders of a precipice. Often a small rivulet runs 

 down the stones with an agreeable noise, the whole in 

 due proportion and as nearly as possible resembling 

 nature. 



"4th: A smaU bush or wood on the side of the 

 hiU for which the gardeners choose such trees as 

 will grow close to one another and plant and cut 

 them according to their largeness, nature and the 

 colotir of their flowers and leaves, so as to make the 

 whole very accurately imitate a natural wood or forest. 



