heian period
Tsuboniwa : 坪庭 or 壷庭 ?
The Tsuboniwa in Japan Kanji: 庭 – niwa – garden, yard 坪 – tsubo – unit of land measurement, 3.31 square meters, 2 tatami mats 壷 – tsubo – jar, pot, vase The courtyard garden – called tsuboniwa in Japanese – is a garden in a small, enclosed area. The gardener does not fill it […]
Stone Lanterns in the Japanese garden
The next garden element on my list is the stone lantern. Everyone knows the beautiful withered lanterns made of natural or hewn rocks. Today I want to talk about their origin and use in the Japanese garden. Origin Lanterns weren‘t always a garden element. They were invented in a religious context during the Tang Dynasty […]
Treasure Ship – 宝船 ・ Ship Stone – 船石 explained
What I always tried to find out was the relationship between the Treasure Ship (takarabune) with the Seven Lucky Gods (shichifukujin), and the Ship Stone (funaishi). Now that I stuck at home, I have time to investigate! Let’s start with a more or less short explanation of these three: Treasure Ship – takarabune – 宝船 This […]
5 Bulbs for your Japanese garden
Summer is in full swing, we only want to sit somewhere doing nothing, but the garden is calling already. It’s time for planting bulbs! Today I would like to introduce what kind of bulbs or rhizome-building plants are going well with a Japanese garden. Some people think that flowers don’t belong in a Japanese […]
Understanding the Wabi-sabi
Japanese people tend to state that foreigners can’t understand the concept of wabi-sabi. But is this really true? Or is it one of these myths Japanese like so much hearing and spreading about their country and culture like that one about other countries don’t have four distinctive seasons? When I came to Japan as a […]
New eBook! Japanese Garden History Part 2 – From Kamakura to Azuchi-Momoyama
I hoped for some blog posts between the new eBook announcements, however, work kept me busy and I was not able to finish the two posts I already started.. That’s why, again, you can read about Real Japanese Gardens new eBook. But I think that’s not so bad either! Because I have a lot of […]
New eBook! Japanese Garden History Part 1 – The Heian Period
The rainy season keeps everyone inside and in front of the computer. Me included. Unfortunately.. But actually, this is to your advantage! Else I wouldn’t do as much on RJG as I do now ^_- Finally I was able to finish the next eBook! I started to work on this series maybe three years ago […]
On the relationship of traditional Japanese gardens to nature. Is a balance between the gardener and nature important and is equilibrium sought within their creation?
Man and Nature: The Early Philosophy of Japanese Gardens Through the act of creating a garden, there is an inherent manipulation of nature. However, in the early forms of Japanese gardening, this was undertaken in order to serve nature and the deities that lived within the ‘garden objects’, such as rocks. It is true that […]