Japanese gardens

Gardens are often classified by how they are experienced: viewed from a fixed point, walked around, or approached on the way to a tea ceremony. Many large gardens combine several types.

Heian-period aristocrats built gardens with large ponds in front of their shinden-style residences, where they held boating parties and poetry gatherings. With the spread of Pure Land Buddhism, gardens were designed as images of Amida's paradise, as at the Byōdō-in in Uji and Mōtsū-ji in Hiraizumi. The Sakuteiki, written in the eleventh century, is the oldest surviving garden manual in the world and gives detailed rules for setting stones.

In the Muromachi period Zen monks such as Musō Soseki designed gardens at Saihō-ji and Tenryū-ji, and dry landscape gardens appeared at temples like Ryōan-ji and Daisen-in. The tea masters of the sixteenth century created the roji. In the Edo period feudal lords (daimyo) laid out great stroll gardens in their castle towns and Edo residences, and the imperial villas of Katsura and Shūgakuin in Kyoto set new standards of refinement. In the twentieth century Shigemori Mirei reinterpreted the dry garden in a modern idiom.

Garden makers work with a vocabulary of elements and techniques passed down through practice and texts. Stone setting (ishigumi) is regarded as the core of the art.

Japan protects its finest gardens as Places of Scenic Beauty; the most important are designated Special Places of Scenic Beauty. Three Edo-period stroll gardens are traditionally called Japan's three great gardens.

Many gardens change dramatically with the seasons: plum and cherry blossom in spring, azaleas and irises in early summer, maple leaves in autumn and snow in winter. Temple gardens are often best seen sitting quietly on the veranda of the hall. Walking on moss or raked gravel, touching trees and using tripods are usually not allowed, and some gardens, such as Saihō-ji and the imperial villas, require advance application.