Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Japanese gardening
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 |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
New gardening series needs your gardening DIY disasters + dishevelled sheds | United Kingdom | |||
NOT OT "Gardening or not gardening posts" | United Kingdom | |||
concrete block farming/gardening; pallet farming/gardening; asphalt roofshingles mulch | Plant Science | |||
Gardening in the media -- was: big gardening magazines | Gardening | |||
[IBC] Japanese Maples From Seed | Bonsai |