Are Japanese Gardens Ecologically Valuable?

Native Plants in Japanese Gardens

Now, looking at the Japanese garden, mostly evergreen and often featuring the same plants, one wonders from the perspective of the emerging native species movement, whether a Japanese garden can be ecologically valuable at all.

To clarify this question, let’s first take a look at Japanese gardens in Japan before briefly examining Japanese gardens in Europe.

It’s often said that the origin of what we can call a garden in Japan lies during the Nara period (710-794). However, the gardens of the Heian period (794-1192) and the following centuries are better known and described.

During this time, plants introduced from China (and Korea) to Japan already existed. However, many of these attempts at colonization were unsuccessful, while others were. For example, the tea plant was imported multiple times from China to Japan. Over the centuries, many of these plants have been stamped “native to Japan.” Also, China and Japan were connected much earlier. The habitats and roots of the respective species were not so far apart. Perhaps even back then, plants from China displaced native (sub)species and insects. However, it’s also possible that native species could adapt more easily to plants from China because Japan and China were once part of the same landmass. From today’s perspective, this is difficult to ascertain.

However, what I mean to say is that almost all the plants we find in the surviving gardens from the Heian to the Edo period are seen as native plants, even if they were originally native to China.

The different habitats in Heian Gardens

Now let’s return to the gardens of the Heian period. The palace gardens were huge, with a massive pond usually in the south of the palace complex with islands, rivers, and mountains. Literature from this time, such as “The Tale of Genji,” or poems (a common form of communication at the time), often makes references to plants. Plants were important metaphors at that time.

So that even the court ladies, who spent most of their lives in the palaces, could enjoy real plants, plants from different habitats were brought into the large gardens.

The gardens of the Heian period mainly used native plants collected in the mountains or floodplains of the surrounding area. The structure of the garden was made from materials from the surroundings, such as rocks and stones from mountains or rivers. The hills of the gardens were modeled with the excavations from the pond. This created habitats on relatively small spaces that resembled the original locations of the plants. And this was the purpose of many of these gardens – if the residents of the palaces couldn’t go to the mountains, then the mountains had to come to them.

In conclusion: the most original Japanese gardens mainly used materials and plants from the immediate surroundings.

This knowledge will be important for clarifying our actual question later.

The Dry Landscape Garden

Over the years, the large palace gardens of the Heian period evolved into smaller garden forms. Especially well-known are the so-called Zen gardens of temple complexes. They are also called dry landscape gardens. As well as tea gardens and the later daimyo gardens.

To put these gardens into context: dry landscape gardens began to develop in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) in Kamakura. In this first phase, they had little in common with the Zen gardens we know today. The best example is probably the famous moss temple Saiho-ji, which also falls into this category. Zen gardens, as we know them, began to emerge from the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Tea gardens and smaller gardens with ponds for viewing from the house began to fully develop in the subsequent Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573-1600). The Edo period (1603-1868) is known for the large daimyo pond gardens that once again resemble the large Heian palace gardens.

While the Heian gardens can still be considered ecologically valuable by today’s standards, this can be questioned rightfully with dry landscape gardens and tea gardens.

Dry landscape gardens often consist of a large area of gravel and stones. Sometimes there is moss around the stones, but sometimes not. In the background or on the side of the garden, there is, ideally, an evergreen hedge. But as always, we must look at the big picture. In those times, and often still today, dry landscape gardens are tied to a specific building within a temple. However, the building itself is part of a much larger temple complex, which also included other garden forms. A great example of this is the Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto. It houses one of the most famous Zen gardens in the world: an approximately 248m² area covered with gravel, with 15 stones arranged in 5 groups. The large stones are surrounded by moss, and there used to be a single Prunus tree in one corner, with walls or building parts surrounding it on all sides. So, this garden doesn’t seem ecologically valuable.

However, the entire temple complex covers an area of about 50 hectares. Most of the area is dominated by a garden with a large pond, old trees, a garden with various flowering shrubs, and wild growth. And the main species are native. Against this background, one can ask whether an area of about 0.05 percent of the total area may not be used in a way that is visually appealing and of practical use to the owners. Just as nobody questions the construction of a car parking space on their own property.