Water is one of the three important elements in the Japanese garden. Today we want to explore how water is integrated into the garden design in form of ponds.
Ponds in the Japanese garden differ, depending on the type of the garden, in size and shape.
History of ponds in Japanese gardens
We have a written record of a „garden“ in a work from the Asuka period (538 to 710 (or 592 to 645) ) where Emperor Keikō, the 12th Emperor of Japan has been credited to have released carp in a pond in 74AD. Excavations date back to the late 4th century. There is a discussion going on if it couldn’t be possible that Emperor Keikō had lived in the 4th century rather than the 1st but there isn’t enough evidence.
The most famous example in literature for a description of gardens with ponds is maybe the Tale of Genji where Prince Genji is building gardens for his women.
This story is taking place in the Heian period (794 – 1185) where huge ponds for boating and festivals were integrated into the gardens.
In Genji‘s garden, a pond connected all the single gardens he had created for his women.
Over time, the focus shifted more to smaller and to temple gardens. Thus, the ponds also became smaller during the Kamakura Period.
In the Muromachi period, temple gardens became more and more popular and we still find many examples of these dry landscape gardens in Japan. Here, we often see gravel areas to resemble the ocean, a pond, or a stream.
In the Edo period then, big gardens became popular again and big ponds came back into focus as the central element of pond strolling gardens.
Nowadays, water isn’t a popular feature in Tokyo’s private gardens anymore because of the many mosquitoes in summer.
But now, let’s dig deeper into the ancient and recent pond shapes and their meanings.
Shigemori Mirei, a renowned garden researcher, defined five basic shapes about which I want to talk today.
Cloud-Shaped Pond (雲形池 – kumo-gata-ike)
In old paintings we see clouds as a way of transportation used by Buddha to invite people to come with him to paradise.
Clouds are also a transition method on paintings between different scenes or to hide unimportant parts of a scenery.
Gourd-Shape Pond (瓢箪形池 – hyōtan-gata-ike)
They can be found in many gardens.
Gourds are an auspicious symbol in Japan and can avert evil and illness.
Flowing Water (流水形池 – nagare-gata-ike)
A pond in the shape of a stream symbolizes flowing water.
Flowing water can symbolize an act of purification but it can also symbolize the flow in time (and life).
Last but not least we have ponds in the stylized shape of two Chinese characters written in a special form of calligraphy.
“Water” (水字池 – suiji-ike)
The ponds in this shape usually symbolize water but we can also interpret much more into it like that water is life-giving, or, like with the stream, it can be purifying.
“Heart” (心字池 – shinji-ike)
Don’t mistake this term for the word for the organ or the shape ♡.
kokoro, the “heart” isn‘t what is beating in our chest, nor the symbol for love. It is our center, our soul, our spirit, our mind. You get the idea..
Not only people have a kokoro, also things can have one and therefore also gardens.
When a garden has a shinji-ike, it can be seen as the heart of the garden.
The sakuteiki, a compilation of how to build gardens from the 11th century, describes garden ponds with many bays, peninsula, and islands. It also recommends convex and concave shorelines. All of these we can also find in the by Shigemori defined basic pond shapes.
Although the sakuteiki is mainly meant for building big gardens, the techniques can also be transferred to smaller garden designs to create a natural ambience.
Related books by Real Japanese Gardens
Ponds in the Japanese Garden
Available as PDF
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Interesting reads: (Links are tied to the Amazon associates program)
Author: Jiro Takei, Marc P. Keane
Price: ~$14.29
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Author: Julie Moir Messervy, Joe Earle, Sadao Hibi
Price: ~$29
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Author: Kathleen Fisher, Editors of Creative Homeowner
Price: ~$15.49
Click to see more details (looks like a great variety of pond styles)
Author: Rakutabi
Price: ~$20.01
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Author: Gakken Mook DO SERIES
Price: ~¥2000
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