Landscape Gardening in Japan 
of very rare rocks or plants, however beautiful, as 
vulgar in itself and distractive from the appreciation 
of ordinary objects. Another sentiment, equally 
sound and democratic, forbade the owner of finely 
flowering trees to close his gates to the passer-by. 
The strong predilection for antique forms of all the 
worked stone objects in a garden is one of the numer¬ 
ous expressions of the Japanese reverence for ances¬ 
tors, while the regard for moss on them or elsewhere 
is also furthered by its indication of undisturbed 
rusticity. 
Turf grows most sparsely on the steep volcanic 
mountains and hills of Japan, and was consequently 
little used in ancient gardens, though it has recently 
been introduced in imitation of foreign models and as 
an economy in garden making and tending. In a 
standard garden, the plain earth, beaten hard, weeded 
and swept, is usually retained for surfaces not other¬ 
wise used. This is kept damp at all times and is 
freely wetted in summer, in order to promote the 
general freshness and coolness of the garden. Less 
commonly such surfaces are spread with sand neatly 
raked into decorative patterns. It is to protect such 
soft surfaces from the Japanese wooden clogs, as well 
as to keep the latter clean, that the stepping stones, 
which form so prominent and picturesque an element 
in the foreground of the garden, are provided, d'hey 
are sometimes called flying stones on account of the 
supposed resemblance in their formation to the order 
taken by a flight of birds. 
Of course, cascades are common in a land where 
innumerable streams tumble down countless hills, 
and it follows that in landscape gardening the cascade 
will form a well-nigh indispensable feature of the 
lake and river varieties; and that in others, where 
water is not available, its location will be indicated by 
means of the rocks appropriate to its fall. Where 
the lake also is lacking, a sunken stretch of hare 
beaten earth or of raked sand, with isolated boulders 
to match islands and pitting rocks, will he provided to 
indicate it. Similarly a stream can be simulated by 
a meandering bed, spread with pebbles and crossed 
by a small bridge or stepping stones, and supplied 
with water-plants and water-worn boulders along its 
Sfone S. 
/ Stone 
Stouc 5. 
Stone iT.' '■ 
^tnmJ 
Stones - I, Guardian Stone; 2, Clift Stone; 3, Hill Stone; 4, f’eak Stone; 5, Worshiping Stone; 6, fVrtect View Stone; 
7, Island Stone; 8, Moon Sliadow Stone; 9, Evening Sun Stone; 10, Two Gods Stone; ii, Pedestal Stone; 12, Label Stone, 
frees—i, I’rincipal (central) f ree; 2, Tree of the Evening Sun; 3, Tree of Solitude. A, Water Basin; B, Stone Lantern; 
C, Well Frame; D, Distant Lantern; E, Well Drain. 
