Not to mention the larger gardens of nunneries and other religious sites...
I think too often westerners (if I may paint with broad sweeps and
generalizations) perceive the quintessential Japanese garden as either a
tiny tsuboniwa (courtyard garden, a small to medium sized squarish open
space that is an architectural element of 99% of all traditional Japanese
homes) or an austere dry raked bed of gravel with a few boulders here or
there.

Dave

"Jim Lewis" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Japanese gardens are for really small tight spaces,
are very tightly landscaped and groomed constantly. I find
Chinese landscaping to be
much more "wild", loose, free style than Japanese. Ingrid



That's only partly true. There are a number of quite large (25-
60-Acre or larger) Japanese gardens in Tokyo alone, dating back
to the Tokugawa Era, and before. Other large gardens can be
found in Nara and Kyoto, among other cities.

A feature of these, however, is that they are divided into many,
much-smaller parts and that you usually cannot see one part from
another -- unlike the famous gardens of Europe, where vistas of
flowers and regimented pathways, mazes, etc. are favored.

They ARE groomed _almost_ constantly, but Japan, too suffers from
a labor shortage and there are few Japanese today who seem to be
willing to take on the constant bent-over labor of maintaining
their large public gardens. The last time I was there, it
actually was quite common to see weeds poking up through the
clipped azalea borders, and the pathways were nowhere near as
pristine as they used to be. The gardeners I DID see were all
quite elderly. Mostly women.

Exception: The gardens around the Imperial Palace. Every leaf
is in its place. Or else!

Of course, many other gardens are small and intimate. These are
the gardens of private residences, or rooftop gardens of large
corporations (or department stores). Tea house gardens are
somewhat larger -- but still measured in square feet, rather than
acres.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.