BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series IV Brooklyn, N. Y., May 3, 1916. No. 5 
THE JAPANESE GARDEN 
The Japanese Garden, of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, was 
first opened to the public on Sunday, June 6, 1915, after a private 
inspection by members and their friends on the preceding after- 
noon. This garden is never more attractive than during the first 
part of May. and will become increasingly beautiful at that season 
from year to year, as the flowering cherry, plum, and apple trees, 
and the azalea bushes become larger. 
Mr. T. Shiota, the designer of our garden, has tersely defined 
a Japanese garden as “the natural landscape idealized and pic- 
tured forth by real objects on the ground. Just as an artist 
sketches a scene on canvas,’’ says Mr. Shiota, “so the garden 
designer represents a beautiful object on the ground by the aid of 
pick and shovel, using trees, rocks, water, and stones as nature 
uses them, but employing the principles of three separate arts — 
painting, sculpture, and architecture — to gain the effects we 
desire. * * * From the designer’s point of view we may de- 
scribe a Japanese garden as a manifestation of his own ideas of 
nature, and also as an expression of his admiration for nature.’’ 
We go to a Japanese garden, therefore, not to see flowers (as 
to an American flower garden), but to enjoy the garden itself as 
an artistic expression of natural scenery. 
The site of the Brooklyn Japanese garden is specially favor- 
able, as it includes a portion of the shore of a small lake, and a 
diversified topography, together with a supply of running water. 
On the east shore of the lake is the tea-house aud wistaria 
arbor. The low, broad seats in the tea-house are commonly mis- 
taken for tables. They are, however, intended as seats, and are 
made broad by the Japanese so as to afford ample room to set 
one’s cup of tea. 
From the tea-house a panoramic view of the entire garden 
may be had across the water. At the right is the moon-view 
