September, 1912 
principal beauty spots of Japan. 
There is another old garden in 
Kyoto, famed for its pond. Around 
its banks are some hundreds of 
smooth, oblong stones. When the 
garden was in course of erection 
word was sent to the feudal lords 
of the different provinces through- 
out the country to contribute certain 
shaped stones. These were gath- 
ered together, wrapped in cotton, 
and carried by messengers to Kyoto. 
It has been said by many that 
what they miss in the Japanese gar- 
den is the flower. The fact is the Jap- 
anese artist sets more value upon 
stones, water and hills than upon 
flowers. Flowers in a bed all packed 
together seem to him an outrage. 
Nothing he regards as more gross 
than the sight of huge flower beds 
crowded with bloom. A _ garden 
with us means as a rule a flower 
garden, but not so in Japan. To 
really comprehend the beauty of a 
Japanese garden it is necessary to 
understand—or, at least, to learn to 
understand—the beauty of stones— 
not stones quarried by the hand of 
man, but of stones shaped by nature 
only. Until you can feel, and keen- 
ly feel, that stones have character, 
that stones have tones and values, 
the whole artistic meaning of a Japanese garden can- — 
not be revealed to you. Large stones selected for | 
their shape may have an esthetic worth of thousands 
of dollars; and large stones form the skeleton, or 
framework, in the design of old Japanese gardens. 
Much has been made of the fact that the Japanese 
are capable of creating a landscape effect upon a 
tiny scale. I have in mind a tray in a friend’s gar- _ 
den, measuring twelve feet by seven feet, containing |! 
a beautiful piece of miniature landscape gardening 
pe iy Pie 
One ee nes 
Dag eae” 
SSSURASH Ree 
Water areas play an important part in planning real Japanese gardens, and the native gardener exercises great skill in their arrangement 
A Japanese garden tea-house 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 313 
of the old style, the creation of an 
expert in Shiba Park, Tokyo. Ina 
lake with irregular coast line, small 
pine-clad islets are so placed as to 
recall the matchless scenery of Mat- 
sushima. ‘Towards the left-hand 
side of the lake, beyond the red- 
railed bridge, stands a shrine, in 
front of which is a waterfall indi- 
cated by ‘Taki’ stone—the natural 
markings of which give a remark- 
ably accurate representation of fall- 
ing water. On the right-hand side 
of the lake the romantic nature of 
the scenery suggests Mijajima—one 
of the “jewels of the Inland Sea” — 
together with an exact reproduction 
of the far-famed Temple of Kinka- 
kuji (Kyoto), whose supporting 
posts stand in the lake in such a way 
as to give it the appearance of float- 
ing on the water. The architecture 
and details of this ancient building 
are faithfully modeled on the origi- 
nal, even the stones and plants as- 
suming the tint of a thousand years, 
and the tiny pine trees and shrubs 
so lavishly used are all venerable in 
the extreme. 
But the question of area is abso- 
lutely optional to the Japanese. A 
landscape effect will be equally as 
well reproduced upon a large scale 
—, 
