What is the Japanese garden like?

Garden decorated in oriental style

In Japan they can boast of, without any doubt, their gardens. The plants they have there you won't see anywhere else; even a Japanese maple grown in Madrid, for example, will not grow the same as in its natural habitat. The land on which they live, combined with the climate and the continuous movement of tectonic plates, means that the plant world has had to manage to survive. And the Japanese have done the same but to create places where problems simply disappear.

If you dream of having a Japanese garden, you don't have to go to Japan. From here, from your armchair, you will know what are the characteristics that it must have and what elements should you include so you can have a piece of the eastern country in your home.

Characteristics of the Japanese garden

Entrance to a Japanese garden

This type of gardens, known in Japanese as nihon tein, from the Heian era (794 to 1185 AD) it is part of the private homes of the wealthy people of the country, as well as Buddhist temples, Sinoist chapels and places with history such as old castles.

In them the traditional Tea Ceremony is celebrated, which is a ritual way of preparing green or matcha tea which is served to a group of guests in an environment decorated in the Japanese style, that is, with kakemonos (pictures hanging on the wall), kokedamas, bonsai, and a tatami (kind of carpet) where all those present at the meeting sit.

The Japanese garden, although it has been developed in Japan, is actually an art that was imported from China. It is a very simple garden, where everything has its function, and where absolutely nothing is missing or superfluous. Thanks to this, the visitor can relax as perhaps they have never been able to do before.

It can have two interpretations: on the one hand, you read the Japanese landscape itself, made up of a group of islands organized around the Seto Inland Sea; on the other hand, It's a Shinto vision of the cosmos, that is, a great void (the sea) that fills with objects (islands).

What elements does it have to have?

Japanese garden with pond

Basically rocks. Rocks are the main element of this type of garden. The most used is that of volcanic origin, such as basalt. But it is not the only thing that has to be:

  • Mount Shumi or the mountain of the axis of the world for Buddhists, represented as a rock in the garden.
  • Mount Horai represented with stones surrounded by water.
  • Tea house or pavilion, where to celebrate, if you wish, the ritual ceremony or relaxation and / or meditation sessions.
  • An island and an access bridge, or similar. If you have a large piece of land, you can take advantage of it to make a large pond and turn it into a kind of island. In case of not having so much land, a small pond will do the same.
  • Plants to decorate it. They cannot be absent. Japanese maples, bamboo, Ferns, moss, Japanese black pine, Cherry treesazaleas, camellias, ... these are just some of the plants that have to be included in these gardens.

What types of Japanese gardens are there?

Garden designed in the Japanese style

Although they all seem more or less the same, there are actually four distinct types:

  • Apartment Gardens: they are those that can be seen from a single place.
  • Contemplation gardens: are those made solely to facilitate meditation through contemplation. Since they are done a lot in temples, they are known as Zen gardens.
  • Promenade gardens: they are those that are seen from a path.
  • Tea gardens: are the paths that lead to a straw hut. Stones are laid on moss, and regular tiles or irregular stones laid in a straight line are used.

What function does it have?

Plants in Japanese garden

The gardens that we are used to seeing are made following an order, from largest to smallest, from least attractive to most striking. It is the way we Westerners usually do things: ordering and classifying them. The Japanese garden is very different which any of us can have in our home.

This type of wonder has been created by the cultural need to be in contact with nature, a nature of which they want to respect their shapes and movements in an environment where only a few elements (rocks, water and plants) are the protagonists. With this, they can make an exact copy of it, endowing each of its parts with a specific meaning.

There is no even number of… nothing in this place. Asymmetry is one of the keys to understand the Japanese garden. Although it would be nothing without contrast of large crowded spaces with large empty spaces, element contrast neither the presence of chiaroscuro. All this combined means that anyone can disconnect from daily life.

Cherry trees and the Japanese garden

Japanese cherry in blossom

The Japanese cherry, whose scientific name is Prunus serrulata, is a deciduous tree that produces beautiful flowers during the spring, before the budding of the leaves. In this season it gets really beautiful, so much so that the Japanese have been celebrating the Hanami, an event during which they sit in the shade of these plants and contemplate their beauty. With everything, no wonder they do not hesitate to plant them in the gardens, thus providing them with beauty, harmony and balance.

With this in mind, one might wonder if there are Japanese gardens based only on cherry trees. Well, in Japan you can see places where cherry trees are the undisputed protagonists, such as Shinjuku Gyoen Park in Tokyo, Himeji Castle, Maruyama Park, Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa, Hirosaki Castle or in Hanamiyama Park in Fukushima.

What Japanese gardens to visit?

Garden designed in the Japanese style

Really impressive Japanese gardens have been made in many parts of the world, such as the following:

  • Japan
    • The Japanese Garden of the Adachi Museum, Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture.
    • Isui-en, in Nara, Nara Prefecture.
    • Kenroku-en, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
    • Urakuen tea garden, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture.
  • United States
    • Anderson Japanese Gardens, Rockford, IL
    • Ro Ho In Japanese Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
    • Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon
    • Morikami Gardens, Delray Beach, Florida
  • Puerto Rico
    • The Japanese Garden, in Ponce, Puerto Rico
  • Uruguay
    • The Japanese Garden of Montevideo, in the exterior areas of the Juan Manuel Blanes Museum, in Prado, Montevideo, Uruguay.
  • Argentina
    • The Japanese Garden of Buenos Aires, in the Tres de Febrero Park, Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  • Australia
    • Frankston High School
    • At Cowa, New South Wales
  • Europa
    • Japanese garden, in the Parque de la Vega in Alcobendas, Madrid.
    • Japanese Garden in Wroclaw, Poland.
  • Chile
    • Japanese park of Antofagasta.
    • Garden of the Heart Park, in La Serena.
  • Costa Rica
    • Japanese Garden of Cartago in Costa Rica, in the Lankester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica, in Dulce Nombre, Cartago.
  • Cuba
    • Japanese Garden of the National Botanical Garden of Cuba in Havana.

In addition, there are two other very famous Japanese-style gardens, which are the Japanese garden of Buenos Aires which is located in the Tres de Febrero Park in the Palermo neighborhood, and the Toulouse Japanese Garden (France), which belongs to the Jardin Compans Caffarelli, located on Boulevard Lascrosses.

Saburo Hirao Japanese Garden

And with this we are done. What did you think of this topic?


4 comments, leave yours

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  1.   PIA said

    Really the installation of a Japanese garden is one of the best decisions that can be made when designing the space of your house.

    1.    louis da costa said

      Everything is beautiful in Japan, its gardens, its temples so, so full of magic in them if you close your eyes you will see sitting a brave Samurai so haughty for his rank as a good Warrior from such glorious times of Japan of the Samurais. the gazing at the beautiful gardens so revered and admired by the Japanese arigato gozaimasu kawaii

  2.   Bald Maria said

    very interesting and complete

    1.    Monica Sanchez said

      Thank you very much.