FAMOUS GARDENS OF JAPAN 
By ANNA C. HARTSHORNE 
W E are so used to associating all sorts of 
odd and dwarfed things with Japan, 
that 1 fancy to most people it is a surprise 
to find on arriving there that Japanese trees 
are allowed to grow tall and spread out nat¬ 
urally, or that they even know how to do so 
when they get the chance. But they do 
know how uncommonly well, and nowhere 
in the world is their size and beauty more 
appreciated than in Japan. There are noble 
trees everywhere : in the vast timber tracts 
of the mountains, carefully preserved by the 
feudal princes, and too often wasted, now 
that they have come under small private 
ownership; and beside the roads, where 
stand here and there the remains of what 
once were avenues of pines and cedars, tall 
and straight as masts; and beside village 
shrines, and in temple courts and feudal 
yashiki in the very heart of Tokyo. 
The Japanese, who delight in grouping 
things numerically, call three Daimyo’s 
pleasure grounds the “ Three Chief Gar¬ 
dens ”—namely, the Mito Yashiki (resi¬ 
dence enclosure) in Tokyo, the castle gar¬ 
den at Okayama, and that at Kanazawa on 
the west coast. This last is also called the 
“ Garden of Six Excellences,” because it is 
large, old, and made with much care and 
labor, and has great beauty, running water 
and a distant view. It belonged to the 
Daimyo of Kaga, lord of one of the largest 
and richest principalities in Tokugawa times; 
but since the Restoration the castle has 
served lor barracks for the garrison stationed 
there, and the garden is thrown open as a 
public park. Okavama, too, is open to the 
people, under sucb mild restrictions that 
dogs, horses and wheeled vehicles may not 
enter. It still belongs to its former lord, 
the sometime Daimyo of the province, and 
is justly the most celebrated of all the gar¬ 
dens of Japan. 
Mito Yashiki is really the least accessible 
of the three, because the place belongs to 
the Imperial Arsenal, and the garden is only 
kept up for love of its beauty. But for sev¬ 
eral years past, through the courtesy of the 
Military Department, permission has been 
granted to visit it, on one day of the week, 
by simply obtaining a pass; so that it is 
quite well known to the outside world. As 
the country grows, however, military rules 
are being enforced more strictly, as in Eu¬ 
rope; and it is said that the privilege of 
visiting the Yashiki is likely to be with¬ 
drawn. 
These “ 'Three Chief Gardens,” and others 
ol their type, cover several acres each ; and 
they would cheat you into thinking it miles, 
so cleverly do the paths wind among green 
slopes and little dells and on the edge of 
what seem to be deep forests, till you hear 
the clatter of wheels and catch a glimpse 
through the undergrowth of jinrikisha men 
trotting along a road not ten feet away. 
Water is indispensable to the picture. At 
Okayama it comes from a little river that 
flows partly around the castle as a defense, 
and then wanders through the park, making 
cascades and spreading out into a lake with 
islands and promontories and little bridges 
and overhanging trees, all so natural that 
you can hardly believe that every effect was 
planned and made, yet so perfect in placing 
and proportion that you feel it could not 
have “jest growed,” even in picturesque 
Japan. 
So natural; 1 mean just that: so exactly 
like almost any bit of the Japanese coast, 
such as lies before me as I sit on this sand 
hill looking over Sagami Bay—the moun¬ 
tains opposite, the steep wooded hills closing 
in behind, the still water strewn with rocky 
islets, and the headlands where the pines 
lean down and almost sweep the tide. Even 
the picturesque tea-houses at Okayama, 
which you may hire for a trifle tor the most 
delightful of picnics, suggest the tiny thatched 
cottages of the fishermen, as the iris-bor¬ 
dered meadows recall the bits of low green 
rice-fields along the shore. 
The whole coast, the lakes and the rivers, 
are full of such pictures—landscape models 
which the Japanese garden architect copies 
faithfully and lovingly; indeed the whole 
purpose of his art is to make a series of 
beautiful pictures. Here is the essential 
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