Japanese garden archetypes

The Japanese landscape - Shintoism - Hindu cosmology - Taoist myth -Buddhist faith - Triadic compositions

Shinto beliefs: sacred archetypes

Permanent shrine buildings appear relatively late in Shintoism; they probably arose during the fifth and sixth centuries AD, when "nature Shinto" slowly entered its second phase of "shnne Shinto". Such was the formal clarity and simplicity of the earliest sanctuanes and the universality of their ritual imagery that they produced specific archetypes of holy site and sacred nte m the collective Japanese subconscious, archetypes which have survived the passage of time and whth continue to cast a spell over foreign tourists even today.

Gardens in ancient Japan

Almost nothing has survived of the gardens of ancient Japan. Their forms and functions can thus only be infer­red from a limited number of literary sources, archeolo-gical excavations and hypothetical reconstructions by Japanese scholars.

The Nihon shoki, the Chronicles of Japan of 720 AD whose records span a period from prehistoric Japan up to 697 AD, contains sporadic references to gardens which, when taken together, add up to a surprisingly clear picture of the first palace gardens in Japan. Below is a selection of these entries:

In the spring of 74 AD, so the Nikon shoki relates, Emperor Keiko "resided in the Kuguri Palace and, let­ting loose carp in a pond, amused himself by looking at them morning and night."'3 In 401 AD Emperor Richu had a pond built at his palace in lhare. In Novem­ber 402 "the Emperor launched the two-hulled boat on the pond of Ichishi at lhare and went on board with the imperial concubine, each separately, and feasted."14 In around 413, the consort of Emperor Ingio was "walking alone in the garden" when a nobleman on horseback looked over the hedge and said: '"What an excellent gardener thou art. Pray, madam, let me have one of those orchids.'"15 In 486 Emperor Kenzo "went to the park, where he held revel by the winding streams".

In 612 an emigre from Korea faced banishment to an island because of his flecked skin. Empress Suiko pared him, however, when she heard his plea that he could "make the figures of hills and mountains". Thanks to his remarkable talents, he was subsequently employed to create a "Mount Sumeru" and a "Bridge of Wu" in the southern courtyard of the imperial pal­ace.'7 It is thought that this Bridge of Wu may have been an ornamental bow-shaped bridge such as is frequently found in Chinese gardens. The shape and nature of Mount Sumeru remains, however, a mystery.

In 625, during the reign of the same Empress Suiko, a minister by the name of Soga no Umako - a member of the powerful Soga clan - owned a palace "on the bank of the river Asuka. A small pond had been dug in the courtyard, and there was a little island in the mid­dle of the pond. Therefore, the men of that time called him shima no oho omi, which translates as 'Lord of the Island(s)'."'8 This palace later passed into the hands of the imperial family and acquired the name of Shima no miya, "Palace of the Isles". It is mentioned in a number of poems in the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry, the Manyoshu or "Collection of a Myriad Leaves" which was compiled in the mid-eighth century.

However fragmentary these literary references, they nevertheless enable us to piece together a fairly accu­rate portrait of the first Japanese garden prototype. The earliest palace gardens were clearly of impressive size. Why else should a powerful minister be called af­ter his garden? They were located in or near the south­ern courtyards of royal or noble residences. Their chief scenic elements included a pond with one or more is­lands, symbolic representations of an ocean landscape, together with man-made mountains and a winding stream with rocks placed along its banks.

It is not known precisely where within Fujiwara-kyo. capital of the Fujiwara clan (694-710), or Heijo-kyo. "Capital of the Castle of Tranquility" (710-784). these gardens were located, nor where they lay in relation to the imperial palaces themselves. Only a few such gar­dens have been excavated, and much remains hypo­thetical It is generally believed that the two above-named capitals, with their palaces and Buddhist tem­ples, were modest imitations of the architecture of the Chinese T'ang dynasty. Thus it may be surmised that their gardens, too, were influenced by those of the T'ang, which ranged from huge pleasure gardens, via rock gardens copying mountains and gorges, to the gardens of court nobles and ministers.

552 AD is widely accepted as the year in which Ja­pan began seriously to copy China's far superior cul­ture. Japans oldest chronicles, the Kojiki of 712 and the Ninon shoki of 720. both agree that this was the year m which Buddhism officially reached Japan. To­gether with Buddhism (which was imported from the kingdom of Korea) came the Chinese script and various works of Chinese art. This by no means implies there were no contacts with Korea or China before this date With time, relations between the Japanese islands and the mainland were strengthened by official missions to the Chinese court. P Varley writes:

"The Japanese dispatched a total of four missions to Sui China during the period 600-614 and fifteen to T'ang between 630 and 838. The larger missions usually consisted of groups of about four ships that trans­ported more than five hundred people, including offi­cial envoys, students, Buddhist monks and translators. Some of these visitors remained abroad for long stret­ches of time - up to thirty or more years - and some never returned The trip was exceedingly dangerous, and the fact that so many risked it attests to the avidity with which the Japanese of this age sought to acquire the learning and culture of China."

This first large wave of Chinese influence left traces m Japanese thought and art which can still be felt to­day Sierksma divides acculturation processes into three phases: first, a phase of identification, of simple imita­tion of the foreign culture. This is succeeded by a phase of remterpretation and. finally, by a phase of complete assimilation and absorption I see the Japa­nese absorption of Chinese culture as following this same rogression, whereby the first phase corresponds to the Tumulus (250-552) and Asuka (552-710) eras, and the second to the Nara era (710-794) and the early years of the Heian period. Sierksma writes of this second phase: "Acculturation is always characterized by remterpretation Objects and ideas are taken over from the strange culture, but derive their meaning from the context of the old culture within which they are now placed. Or again, indigenous elements of cul­ture are given a new meaning in the context of the new strange culture."

Such regular cultural exchanges with China exerted a profound influence upon the religion, arts, govern­ment, economic system and social structure of Japan In 894, however, one hundred years after the founding of Heian-kyo. they came to an abrupt end Japan broke off all diplomatic and cultural relations with China shortly before the collapse of the T'ang dynasty

This simultaneously marked the beginning of the third phase of the acculturation process, which reached its climax approximately a century later with Japan's complete assimilation of Chinese values and forms

Pure-Land paradise garden of Byodo-m Temple. Kyoto, seen from the soutfi-easf The right angles of the Hoodo, the Phoenix Hall built in W52, are reflected m the man-made water-lily pond This contrast between the right angle and the irregular forms of cultivated nature expresses the aesthetic principle underlying the garden as a whole

Hindu cosmology: The mountain as axis mundi

The arrival of Buddhism in Japan led to the adoption of a particularly potent archetypal image from the cos mology of a foreign culture: the image of Mount Meru (Shumi-sen in Japanese), the cosmic mountain at the centre of the universe. Representations of this moun tain can be found in many Japanese gardens. The earli est written Buddhist sources, themselves based on even older concepts of Hindu cosmology, see the universe as "a single, circular world system surrounded by a mountain range of iron, cakravala, from which its name is derived"

Buddhist cakravala cosmology exists in a number of forms, varying according to tradition. All, however, ap pear to share the same central concept of the universe as a circular disk with Mount Meru at its centre. Lying in concentric circles around this axis mundi are seven golden mountain ranges and an eighth and last moun tain range of iron, the cakravala. There are oceans be tween the mountains; only in the ocean between the seventh mountain range and the cakravala are there four islands inhabited by man. A further eight unin habited islands float in the other oceans. The disk rests on a foundation of golden earth, which in turn floats on water.

It is important to remember that this image portrays the universe as a whole, and not just our own earth. Mount Meru is the axis of that universe; the golden mountain ranges which encircle it denote the various realms of meditation and heavenly spheres.⁵This origi nally Indian cosmography was taken up by the Japa nese garden. Mount Meru can thus often be found as a single, towering rock, sometimes surrounded by sub sidiary stones, prominently located within an individual garden. In other cases, the representation of all nine mountains and eight oceans underlies the design of an entire garden. One of the most beautiful examples here is the garden in front of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, where the various islands and rocks in Mirror Lake can be seen as an illustration of an originally Hindu concept of the universe.

Touching the soul of the Japanese islanders even more profoundly than the details of Buddhist-Hinduist cosmology was, however, the powerful image of the mountain at the centre of the universe and of the wafers of both life and death. Mountain and water converge in the image of the island, which appears in Japanese cosmology - as indeed elsewhere - as the first manifestation of land, indeed of form as such.

The recurrent appearance of the cosmic mountain throughout the history of the Japanese garden points to the resonance which the simplicity, power and beauty of this pre-scientific model of the universe finds in the collective Japanese subconscious. What I have here termed an "archetypal image", Mircea Eliade calls a "symbol". A true "symbol", says Eliade, "speaks to the whole human being and not only to the intelli gence". The concept of the island in the ocean is pre cisely such a symbol.

Just as the ancient civilizations of East Asia built stupas, temples, even entire cities in the shape of the mandala, symbol of the structural principles of the cos mos as a whole, so it comes as no surprise to find this same mandala, with the axis mundi at its centre, inspir ing the design of many a Japanese garden.

Heian attitudes towards nature and garden design

Neither the few surviving remains of gardens of the Heian period nor the hypothetical reconstructions of those lost to us provide sufficient bases upon which to judge contemporary Heian attitudes towards nature and garden architecture. We are thus obliged to rely on historical records of the day, of which two literary sources of particular relevance shall be discussed here The first illustrates the social function of palace gar dens, while the second paints a useful picture of gar den design and construction.

Japan has four distinct seasons, and their transition

Japan has four distinct seasons, and their transition

can be predicted to within one or two days The subtle transformations taking place during these periods of natural change are the central themes of Japanese poetry and painting and the Japanese festival calendar Thus the patterns of kimonos, the flower arrangements in the decorative alcoves of traditional houses, even the type and timing of food served in tradition-conscious Japanese restaurants all reflect the time of year. It is rare even today to receive a letter which does not open with a reference to a seasonal flower or the currently-prevailing humidity or cold

Although the Japanese garden has. over the course of the centuries, evolved through a remarkable variety of sizes and styles, it nevertheless displays a design logic which rs intimately bound up with the genius too of the Japanese landscape - in other words, with the essence of the country as it appears to the human imagination.

Buddhist faith:The paradise of Amida Buddha

Meditation and magic were not the only paths traced in the architecture of Japanese gardens. A third path, that of devotion, inspired a vision of paradise which found concrete correlation in the pond islands within 8uddhist temple precincts

Mahayana Buddhism speculates that space is divided into ten realms which contain countless numbers of world systems Some of these systems lie under the influence of specific Buddhas One such system is Sukhavaii. or Jodo in Japanese, a "Pure Land" under the influence of Amida (Amitabha). a transhistoncal Buddha of infinite light and eternal life. It is located, according to this cosmology, at the "provisional limit of the worlds to the West" in an otherwise "unlimited universe".

To be reborn m Amida's Pure Land after ones death m this world was considered a significant step towards Buddhahood. Belief in Amida and his paradise can be traced back to three Indian sutras, which arose be tween the second and fifth centuries AD, m which Shakyamunt tells of Amida's vow to save anyone who faithfully devotes their life to him. Shakyamum then proceeds to give a vivid description of Amida's para dise, where magnificent palaces are set m beautiful gardens of shady terraces and lotus ponds

The Mahayana Buddhism from which this idea stems is often called the "Great Vehicle" of Buddhism. In place of the arduous meditalional practices of other Buddhist seas, it employs "easier" methods such as chant, prayer and the contemplation of images Per haps this explains why Pure Land Buddhism has at tracted the largest following of all the Buddhist sects m China and Japan It is only natural, therefore, that it should also have the largest number of temples in Ja pan. When looked at more closely, however, the mod els underlying human representations of Amida's para dise reveal themselves to be worldly rather than heav enly in origin The visions of Amida's Pure Land both as painted on mandalas and recreated in garden architec ture bear close resemblance to the royal pleasure gar dens of the ancient Middle East. It is probable, there fore, that Ihe mythological Pure Land of the original Indian sutras was based on descriptions of Middle-Eastern palaces; this would in turn explain why the legendary country lies in the West, and not in the East. The fear of death, as we have already said, runs deeper than all other fears, and goes beyond the bounds of mere history. And thus these last three archetypes of Japanese garden architecture, based respectively on Hindu cosmology, Chinese myth and Buddhist faith, all have one thing in common: they are expressions of man's desire to outwit the laws of nature to which he is subject and to escape death. Paradoxically, man seeks to transcend Nature by means of man-made nature.

The rock archetype: iwakura and iwasaka

The Japanese fascination, indeed obsession with binding, manipulating and even crippling plants for gardens or miniature landscapes thus has its roots in a cultural phenomenon dating back literally thousands of years.

The appreciation of the beauty of natural rock has been one of the most pronounced characteristics of the Japanese garden throughout its history. Rocks are employed in garden composition for their sensory, scenic and symbolic effects, a distinction David Slawson introduced. Many Japanese and Western academics trace this love of pure, unadulterated stone to the worship - possibly dating from neolithic times - of huge boulders and rocky outcrops such as those found in ancient Shinto shrines. These rocks were often bound with the shime-nawa ropes mentioned above to indicate their sacred character, as is the case in the Omiwa shrine near Nara. Rocks thus identified are accepted as go-shintai, the abode of a deity, leading many to conclude that prehistoric Shintoism must have undergone an animistic phase. It is my opinion, however, that the appreciation of the beauty of rocks, and the worship of a divine presence concealed behind them, is a relatively late phenomenon in the history of Shintoism. Such rocks were originally called iwakura and iwasaka, literally meaning "rock seat" and "rock boundary", suggesting that they were placed in preanimistic times as markers, denoting occupation of land or property. At some stage their original meaning and function were forgotten, and they acquired religious as well as territorial significance. Later still even similar naturally occurring (not man-made) rock-formations came to be seen as abodes of deities.

Mirei Shigemori, on the other hand, argues that certain unique natural stone and rock formations were considered sacred from the very beginning. To these were added, over the course of time, other rocks, thereby creating a sacred precinct which was at least in part man-made. In the final phase, a particular sanctuary might have all its rocks imported. This marked the beginning of Japanese garden architecture proper.

However different these standpoints, both underline the special status afforded the natural rock in Japan. Castle walls aside, natural stone has never played a mapr role as a building material in traditional Japanese architecture. On the contrary, stone is finely appreciated for the subtle distinctions of its form, colour and texture, and an individual rock may even be assigned the human characteristics of head and feet, front and back. Rock has thereby acquired archetypal status, and a Japanese garden without an unusual rock or rock group, natural or carved, is quite inconceivable.

The Heian period

The gardens and architecture of the Heian period (794-1185) reflect, in the first half of the period, the processes of Japanese remterpretation of Chinese cul ture and. m the latter half, the results of us complete assimilation

In 794. at the command of Emperor Kammu, the capital of Japan was moved to Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto). It remained m this "Capital of Peace and Tran quility" until 1868. when it moved to Edo, which was in turn renamed Tokyo. "Capital of the East".

The grid layout structuring both the imperial resi dence and the city as a whole is derived from Heian-kyo's great - and considerably larger - Chinese model, Changan, which was the capital of China under the Sui and T'ang dynasties from 583 to 904 The rules of Chinese geomancy also dictated Heian-kyo's siting and geographical orientation within the natural landscape The same rules governed the gardens within the impe-nal palace complex and the palaces of the nobility.

The Japanese garden in history

From prototype to type and stereotype

The evolution of religious, artistic and social thinking in Japan ts mirrored in the role assigned to rocks and plants by Japanese garden designers. This rale has changed greatly over the course of history It began as the imitation of the external forms of nature, but as the laws of nature became increas ingly understood, its focus shifted to the imitation of the essence of nature and its internal mode of operation, only to move on. m modern times, to the superimposition of man's egoistic will on nature

Each major epoch in the history of the Japanese garden has approached the garden archetypes described in the preceding pages from the stand point of its own understanding of form and function, with the result that each has given birth to its own new. unique prototype. The development of the formal language of these prototypes was thereby directly related to changing attitudes to nature, to socio-political conditions and to religio-philosophical trends; in short, to the intellectual climate as a whole.

The invention of a new garden prototype and its exploration in various types does not imply a renunciation of the previous prototype; rather, it represents a dynamic remierpretaiion and combination of the old with the new. With historical hindsight it is thus often possible to discover the germ of a later prototype still dormant in a much earlier one At the same time, however, there are inevitable instances of mere mechanical repetition, where gardens simply copy the stereotypes of the past

With reference to Е Ambaszs "Theory of Formal Types". I see the proto type as the product of the gardener as artist, the type as the product of the gardener as craftsman and the stereotype as the product of the gardener as purely commercially-minded designer"