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Elements & Explanations

Japanese Gardens Elements & Explanations
You feel overwhelmed by all the garden specific terms in books about Japanese gardens? The glossary at the end is helpful, but you still do not know exactly how those garden elements look like? Real Japanese Gardens’ Garden Term Glossary comes with explaining pictures to nearly every term explained, Kanji, Hiragana and their reading. In this volume, we focused on popular elements, architectural styles, and tools used in Japanese gardens.
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Examples

Fences as an element:
In Japan, fences have first been used extensively during the Kamakura period and developed much later than walls. That is surprising – considering the availability and versatility of the materials used. Their functions are manifold: They block views and separate sceneries, are erected as boundaries around the garden, work as windbreaks or screens or emphasize a special element in a garden.
Famous temples like the Ginkaku-ji and the Kinkaku-ji have their own fencing styles that are copied throughout the country. Traditionally materials like bamboo and wood or brushwork are used. Bamboo is especially valued for its simple beauty and flexibility. Above that, it is a fast growing local resource. Bamboo ages gracefully over the years – the fresh green fades to a honey colored gold and ages with to a silvery gray. Often, rough black hemp string (shuronawa) is used to tie the split bamboo pieces together in decorative knots.

Japanese architecture explained:
Gardens in Japan are usually part of temples or shrines or belong to a dwelling – historically strolling gardens around aristocratic residences, warrior class houses or – since pre-modern times small gardens in the inner courtyard of the house.
Japanese gardens were often built to be enjoyed from the house – maybe from a mediation hall, a study room or a wide veranda under the heavy eaves of the roof. So to really appreciate a garden, we think it’s best if you see it in context with the architecture around them. In our e-book we will have give an overlook over Japan’s architectural styles, explore its origins in China and other Asian countries and see how it developed independently over the course of the centuries.

Elements & Explanations - The Books

Ponds in the Japanese garden
Japanese garden Paths
Japanese garden history bundle
Japanese garden Glossary
Stone arrangement in the Japanese Garden
Japanese bamboo fences in the Japanese Garden
Japanese Garden History Part 1
Auspicious Plants in the Japanese garden
Japanese bamboo fences in the Japanese garden
Japanese garden history Part 2
Japanese Garden Paths
Gravel Patterns in the Japanese garden
Japanese garden History Part 3
Elements & Explanations