Japanese Garden Styles

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Japanese gardens aren't all the same - they come in different styles. There are four basic types of garden, and three levels of formality. In a big Japanese garden, you'll see several different garden types and styles.

Japanese Garden Styles - Types of Japanese garden

Sand and stone garden (karesansui)

This is probably the best known kind of Japanese garden, and one of the ones that people are most likely to think of when someone says 'Japanese garden'. A sand and stone garden is made up of a few key stones carefully place, and raked sand or gravel around them.

Karesansui means 'dry landscape', and the arrangement of sand and stones is intended to represent a landscape in miniature. The raked gravel usually represents water – a sea, pond, or river, with the stones and/or moss-covered mounds representing islands.

The value that Japanese gardeners place on empty space can especially be seen in sand and stone gardens. This makes them especially peaceful and suitable for contemplation or meditation, and in the west they are often called 'Zen gardens', though their proper name is karesansui. In Japan, sand and stone gardens are often found in temple and monastery gardens.

Hill and pond strolling gardens (chisen-kaiyu-skiki)

Hill and pond strolling gardenIn the Heian period, hill and pond gardens were designed to be seen from a boat on the pond, but from the Edo period, they became gardens which were intended to be walked around. So a hill and pond strolling garden is designed to be seen from many different perspectives, as one walks around it. The path and the views are carefully planned out together. Sometimes these gardens are created to represent a particular landscape – a favourite region, or the land of ones birth.

Flat garden (hira-niwa)

Flat courtyard gardenFlat gardens are a development of sand and stone gardens. They're found in front of pavillions and temples, and are often laid out to be seen from the verandah of the building. They usually have an area of sand and stone, laid out as if it were a lake or sea, with a 'shore' or slightly raised earth around it, with trees and other plants. Shrubs may be clipped to suggest hills or mountains.

Tea gardens (cha-niwa or roji-niwa)

The tea ceremony is all about being completely present in the moment: appreciating the tea, the bowl, the guests. Tea gardens are designed to help guests step into the right state of mind, with tranquility and simplicity.

Tea Tea gardens are always rustic (as opposed to formal). The guest enters through a gate, where he steps from the busy everyday world into the quiet world of the tea garden. He follows a winding path (roji) through the garden to a waiting place (machiai) – a small building or bench – where he waits for his host and contemplates his surroundings. He is then taken into the inner garden, and past a tsukubai (stone basin arrangement) where he washes his hands to purify himself before stepping into the teahouse itself.

This path, the roji (the outer path is soto-roji and the inner path is uchi-roji), and the mental journey it represents is so central to the experience of the tea ceremony that tea gardens are often refered to as roji-niwa – 'path gardens', as well as cha-niwa – 'tea gardens'.

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Japanese Garden Styles

As well as the types of garden I just described, 'Japanese garden styles' could also refer to the degree of formality of the garden. There are three levels of formality:

 

Shin – formal
Gyo – medium formality
So – informal / rustic
The level of formality that you choose affects every decision, as there are formal and rustic styles of ornament, building, path, etc. A temple or palace garden will almost be mostly formal, and tea gardens are always rustic.