Hi all... I'm a lurker too...

....been reading up on bamboo lately and ran across an interesting passage on
"Gardens in China and Japan" (as relating to bamboo ...

quote

"Bamboo plays an important role in Chinese and Japanese gardens. To
understand this, one needs to appreciate the significance of gardens and
garden art in these countries. Garden design is considered an art form
similar to landscape painting, and is carried out according to a comparable
set of rules. (There are Fundamental differences between Chinese and
Japanese garden art, but it would take us too far to go into these here. The
reader should investigate the extensive literature.) In Asia there has
always been a particular fear of wild, untamed nature, yet simultaneously a
strong love for it and a feeling of unity with it. Nature and humanity are
seen as indivisible. Gardens should reflect nature, but also provide people
with the chance to immerse themselves in nature through meditation. A garden
is therefore strongly symbolic. Chinese gardens are works of art in which
landscapes are set up, not to imitate nature, but to simplify it and render
it more profound, as in painting. A Chinese or Japanese, garden is scarcely
comparable with a European garden, because it is based upon a different set
of assumptions. Chinese and Japanese gardens create a landscape that
stimulates the imagination rather than the understanding. One sees over and
over the juxtaposition of Yang and Yin, the masculine and feminine, hard and
soft; for example rock and water, bamboo and chrysanthemum, straight and
curved lines.

"In 1634 Yuan Jeh wrote this about gardens; 'A single mountain can have many
effects, a small stone can awaken many feelings. The shadows of dry banana
leaves draw themselves wonderfully upon the paper of the window. The roots
of the pine-tree force themselves through the cracks of the stone. If you
can find peace here in the middle of the city why should you wish to leave
this place and seek another?...' All things in Chinese gardens - and in
still more refined and abstract form in Japanese gardens - have symbolic
value and are aids to meditation. Water is always present, standing for
human life and philosophical thought. There are no lawns, but gravel beds
instead. Rocks symbolize mountains. They are often raised up high and
particular value is laid on bizarre and steep formations. They represent, in
contrast to water, the might of nature. Flowers are never planted in groups
or patterns but stand isolated, to aid meditation. The chrysanthemum, which
flowers late and is frost-tolerant, symbolizes culture and retirement, the
water lily is the sign of purity and truth. Bamboo stands for suppleness and
power, true friendship and vigorous age. The evergreen foliage of bamboo
also provides a background for plum blossom and makes an artistic picture
together with pine. In Asian gardens bamboo is usually thinned so that
individual [snip]"

endquote
[Bamboos, 1992, Recht / Wetterwald, ISBN 0-88192-268-4]

I particularly like the "why should you wish to leave this place and seek
another?..." part!

cheers

Mark Tutty
Gisborne NZ

"Michael Palmer" wrote in message
om...
I've been lurking for a bit now. This is a very informative
newsgroup. I have a question that I hope can be answered. What is it
that makes a "Japanese Garden" a true Japanese garden? There seems to
be many interpretations out there. Any sites to recommend me to with
pics? Thanks everyone.
Michael