Japanese Gardens in America 
I. MR. MATTHIAS HOMER’S GARDEN 
By PHEBE WESTCOTT HUMPHREYS 
T O Mr. Matthias Homer should be given the 
credit of being one of the first to introduce a 
novelty in garden decoration, in the form of a 
typical Japanese landscape, endowed with the mys¬ 
tery and symbolic charm that characterizes the 
landscape gardening of “the land of the plum and the 
cherry blossom.” It is true that Japanesque features 
in quaint gardening have been displayed from time 
to time in ornamenting the grounds of celebrated 
country seats; and there are Japanese flower gardens, 
so-called, with unique specimens of twisted and 
knotted old cherry trees, and plum trees dwarfed in 
model Oriental fashion, found in connection with 
steeply arched bridges, lotus ponds, wistaria arbors, 
and bamboo decorated tea-rooms; until the traveled 
owners declare that 
their novel posses¬ 
sions are realistic re¬ 
productions of Jap¬ 
anese gardens which 
they have personally 
viewed and admired 
in the far East. But 
only the gardens 
“built” by ge nuine 
landscape artists, who 
thoroughly understand 
the religious signifi¬ 
cance and traditions 
permeating their 
craft, can be consid¬ 
ered and studied as 
typical reproductions. 
Mr. Homer was 
favored not only in the 
manner of securing his 
garden material, but 
also in securing the 
services of the Jap¬ 
anese craftsmen, S. 
F u r u k aw a and A. 
Kimura, for construct- 
ing the miniature 
landscape and endow¬ 
ing it with the sym¬ 
bolisms of their na¬ 
tional traditions. 
Though small in area 
—being somewhat less 
than a hundred feet in 
length, and varying in width from twenty-eight to 
forty-two feet—there have been placed in the most 
exacting proportions within this space, not only the 
indispensable “mountain” and lake, dwarfed trees 
and flowering shrubbery, b'ddges and lanterns and 
stepping stones, but also what is of still greater interest 
—the correct placing of the “guardian stone,” the 
“worshiping stone,” the “stone of the two deities,” 
etc., etc. It IS the presence of these character-giving 
objects, and the perfect accord of the whole, that 
makes this particular garden so “real.” 
I had heard Mr. Homer’s interesting account of 
how an intense desire for a Japanese garden of his 
own first took possession of him on visiting the once 
famous Japanese tea garden at Atlantic City. Of 
how, when the at¬ 
tractions of that well 
planned garden proved 
too Oriental to appeal 
to sufficient numbers 
of that popular resort, 
and difficulties and 
failure finally overtook 
it, he determined to 
secure the material 
used in its construc¬ 
tion when the gar¬ 
den passed out of exist¬ 
ence. 
Of how he was not 
only fortunate in get¬ 
ting this varied ma¬ 
terial at low prices, hut 
also m gaining the con- 
fid e n c e of the two 
Japanese artists who 
had participated in its 
original building, and 
in persuading them to 
reconstruct it, on a 
smaller scale, on his 
home grounds. 
Having learned of 
its interesting origin, 
and realizing that for 
this reason it would 
present additional at¬ 
tractions, it was with 
delightful anticipations 
that I accepted an 
RUGGED STAIRWAYS OF WOOD AND STONE DEAD 
UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE 
