_BY THE SAME ARTIST_
THE ITALIAN LAKES
PAINTED BY ELLA DU CANE
DESCRIBED BY RICHARD BAGOT
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_Containing 69 full-page Illustrations
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THE FLOWERS AND GARDENS
OF JAPAN
AGENTS
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[Illustration: WISTARIA, KYOMIDZU]
THE FLOWERS
AND
GARDENS OF JAPAN
PAINTED BY
ELLA DU CANE
DESCRIBED BY
FLORENCE DU CANE
[Illustration: colophon]
PUBLISHED BY
ADAM & CHARLES
BLACK
SOHO SQUARE
LONDON W.
MCMVIII
PREFACE
An apology is due to the reader for adding this volume to the long
list of books already written on Japan; but, being a lover of flowers
myself, I found there was no book giving a short account of the flora
of the country which is so often called the Land of Flowers. Hence my
excuse for offering these pages, either to those who may be intending
to visit, or to those who may wish to recall the memories of a sojourn
in the Land of the Rising Sun.
The book does not pretend to furnish a complete list of all the flowers
to be found in the country, but rather to give a description of those
which are most remarkable for their beauty and profusion, and which are
most closely associated with Japan. The pages on landscape gardening
have been condensed, partly owing to want of space, and also because
I felt that those who take a real and thorough interest in the subject
have Mr. Conder’s admirable volumes on “Landscape Gardening in Japan”
to help them in the study of the most complicated form of gardening in
the world. Being debarred, through lack of sufficient knowledge of the
language, from availing myself of original works in Japanese, I have
drawn much information from Mr. Conder’s works, and from those of other
foreigners; but I wish gratefully to acknowledge the help I received
from Mr. Y. Noguchi, who provided me with the flower legends and fairy
tales, which are household words in every Japanese home.
FLORENCE DU CANE.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
1. LANDSCAPE GARDENING 1
2. STONES--GARDEN ORNAMENTS AND FENCES 19
3. LANDSCAPE GARDENS 38
4. NURSERY GARDENS--DWARF TREES AND HACHI-NIWA 55
5. TEMPLE GARDENS 72
6. SUMMER FLOWERS 87
7. PLUM BLOSSOM 104
8. PEACH BLOSSOM 119
9. CHERRY BLOSSOM 127
10. WISTARIA AND PÆONY 146
11. AZALEAS 161
12. THE IRIS 169
13. THE MORNING GLORY 181
14. THE LOTUS 186
15. THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 197
16. THE MAPLE LEAVES 214
17. THE BAMBOO 223
18. THE PINE-TREE 236
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
1. Wistaria, Kyomidzu _Frontispiece_
2. Wistaria in a Kyoto Garden 4
3. The Storks 12
4. Azaleas in a Kyoto Garden 22
5. Azaleas, Kyoto 28
6. Tiger Lilies 34
7. An Old Garden 40
8. Satake Garden, Tokyo 42
9. A Tokyo Garden 46
10. A Landscape Garden 52
11. The Old Wistaria 60
12. At Kitano Tenjin 72
13. The Drooping Cherry 74
14. A Shrine at Kyomidzu 78
15. White Cherry at Kitano 80
16. Cherry Blossom, Chion-in Temple 84
17. The Kobai Plum Blossom 92
18. _Lilium Auratum_ 96
19. Lilies on the Rocks, Atami 98
20. An Hydrangea Bush 100
21. Viewing the Plum Blossoms 104
22. The Gate of the Plum Garden 106
23. The Time of the Plum Blossoms 110
24. Plum Blossom and Lanterns 116
25. Peach Blossom 120
26. The Pagoda, Kyomidzu 126
27. A Buddhist Shrine 130
28. The Feast of the Cherry Blossoms 132
29. The Pink Cherry 138
30. Cherry-tree at Kyomidzu 142
31. Wistaria, Kameido 148
32. Wistaria, Nagaoka 152
33. A Pæony Garden 154
34. Wistaria, Kabata 158
35. Azaleas 162
36. Azaleas, Nagaoka 164
37. Azaleas, Awata 166
38. An Iris Garden 172
39. Irises 178
40. Lotus at Kodaiji 186
41. Lotus at Kyomidzu 188
42. Lotus Flowers 194
43. Chrysanthemums, Kyoto 198
44. A Chrysanthemum Garden 204
45. Chrysanthemums 208
46. The Scarlet Maple 214
47. Viewing the Maples 218
48. Irises, Horikiri 230
49. Pine-tree at Matsushima 238
50. Azalea and Pine-tree 244
FLOWERS & GARDENS OF JAPAN
CHAPTER I
LANDSCAPE GARDENING
It is safe to assert that no other country has such a distinctive form
of landscape gardening as Japan. In English, French, Italian, and Dutch
gardens, however original in their way, there are certain things they
seem all to possess in common: terraces, which originally belonged
to Italian gardens, were soon introduced into France; clipped trees,
which were a distinctive feature of Dutch gardens, were copied by the
English; the fashion of decorating gardens with flights of stone steps,
balustrades, fountains, and statues at one time spread from Italy
throughout Europe; and possibly the over-decoration of gardens led to
a change in taste in England and a return to a more natural style. The
gardens of China and Japan have remained unique; the Eastern style of
gardening has never spread to any other country, nor is it ever likely
to; for, just as no Western artist will ever paint in the same manner
as an Oriental artist because his whole artistic sense is different, so
no Western gardener could ever hope to construct a garden representing
a portion of the natural scenery of Japan--which is the aim and object
of every good Japanese landscape garden, however small--because,
however long he might study the original scene, he would never arrive
at the Japanese conception of it, or realise what it conveyed to the
mind of a Japanese. Their art of gardening was originally borrowed from
the Chinese, who appear to have been the first to construct miniature
mountains, and to bring water from a distance to feed miniature
water-falls and mountain torrents. They even went so far as, in one
enclosure, to represent separate scenes for different seasons of the
year, and different hours of the day, but to the Japanese belongs the
honour of having perfected the art of landscape gardening.
It is not my intention to weary the reader with technical information
on the subject, which he will find admirably explained in Mr. Conder’s
volume on _Landscape Gardening in Japan_, but an outline of some of the
theories and rules which guide the Japanese gardener will help us to
appreciate his work and give an additional interest to the hours spent
in these refreshing retreats from the outer world.
The designer of a good landscape garden has to be guided by many
things. A scene must be chosen suited to the size of the ground and
the house, and its natural surroundings; and the Japanese garden being
above all a spot for secluded leisure and meditation, the temperament,
sentiment, and even the occupation of the owner are brought into
consideration. Their conception of the expression of nature is governed
in its execution by endless æsthetic rules; considerations of scale,
proportion, unity, and balance, in fact all that tends to artistic
harmony, must be considered, so as to preserve the perfect balance of
the picture, and any neglect would destroy that feeling of repose which
is so essential in the landscape garden. When we realise that the art
has occupied the minds of poets, sages, and philosophers, it is not
to be wondered at that something more than the simple representation
of natural views has entered into the spirit of their schemes, which
attain to poetical conceptions; and a garden may be designed to suggest
definite ideas and associations, in fact the whole art is enshrouded
by quaint æsthetic principles, and it is difficult for the Western mind
to unravel the endless laws and theories by which it is governed.
In gardens which cover a larger area the scheme must necessarily be
very different from that required for the making of a tiny garden,
only some few yards square, but the materials used will be the same;
only the stone bridges and garden ornaments will all be in proportion
to the size of the garden, for the rule of proportion is perhaps the
most important of all. I visited a garden which was being enlarged
by the addition of a hill and the suggestion of mountain forests, to
give the impression of unknown limits. The owner explained that as he
had enlarged his house it was therefore necessary at the same time to
enlarge his garden. A landscape garden may be of any size, from the
miniature scenes, representing pigmy groves, and mossy precipices, with
lilliputian torrents of white sand, compressed into the area of a china
dish, to the vast gardens with their broad sheets of water and majestic
trees which surrounded the Daimyo castles of old or the Imperial
palaces of to-day; but the sense of true proportion must be rigidly
adhered to. Large rocks and boulders are out of
[Illustration: WISTARIA IN A KYOTO GARDEN]
place in a small garden, and small stones in a large garden would be
equally unsuitable. The teachers of the craft have been most careful to
preserve the purity of style. Over-decoration is condemned as vulgar
ostentation, and faulty designs have even been regarded as unlucky, in
order to avoid degeneration in the art.
In some of the most extensive gardens it is not uncommon to represent
several favourite views, and yet the composition will be so contrived
that all the separate scenes work into one harmonious whole. In the
immediate foreground of a nobleman’s house there will be an elaborately
finished garden full of detail and carefully composed, the stones
employed will be the choicest, the water-basin of quaint and beautiful
design. Stone lanterns in keeping with the scene will be found,
miniature pagodas possibly, and a few slabs of some precious stone to
form the bridges. Farther away from the house the scheme should be less
finished. Surrounding the simple room set apart for the tea ceremony
the law forbids the garden to be finished in style, it must be rather
rough and sketchy, and then if some natural wild scene is represented,
a broad effect must be retained; a simple clump of pines or
cryptomerias near a little garden shrine will represent some favourite
temple, or a small grove of maples and cherry-trees by the side of a
stream of running water will suggest the scenery of Arashiyama or some
other romantic and poetical spot.
To our Western ideas it seems impossible that a garden without flowers
could be a thing of beauty, or give any pleasure to its owner. Yet,
strange as it may appear, flowers for their own sakes do not enter
into the scheme of Japanese gardening, and if any blossoms are to be
found, it is probably, so to speak, by accident, because the particular
shrub or plant which may happen to be in flower was the one best
suited by its growth for the position it occupies in the garden. For
instance, azaleas are often seen covering the banks with gorgeous
masses of colour, but they are only allowed, either on account of their
picturesque growth and the fact that they are included in the natural
vegetation of the scene produced, or else because the bushes can be
cut into regulation shapes, which, as often as not, is done when the
flowers are just opening. Though the Japanese are great lovers of
flowers, their taste is so governed by rules, that they are extremely
fastidious in their choice of the blossoms they consider worthy of
admiration. The rose and the lily are rejected as unworthy, their
charms are too obvious: their favourites are the iris, pæony, wistaria,
lotus, morning glory, and chrysanthemum; and even among these the iris,
wistaria, and possibly the lotus, are the only ones which seem ever
to be allowed to belong in any way to the real design of the garden.
Flowering trees take more part, and the plum, peach, cherry, magnolia,
and camellia are all permitted; and the numerous fancy varieties of
the maple, whose leaves enrich the autumn landscape with their scarlet
glory, are as much prized as any of the blossoming shrubs. It is rather
to the storm-bent old pine-trees and other evergreen trees and shrubs,
to the mossy lichen-covered stones, to the clever manipulation of the
water to represent a miniature mountain cascade or a flowing river, and
to broad stretches of velvety moss that the true Japanese garden owes
its beauty.
Mr. Conder tells us that the earliest style of gardening in the
country was called the _Imperial Audience Hall Style_, because, not
unnaturally, it was round the palaces and houses of the great nobles
that the idea was first adopted of arranging the ground to suggest a
real landscape. The designs appear to have been primitive, but they
usually contained a large irregular lake, with at least one island
reached by a bridge of picturesque form. Later--from the middle of
the twelfth to the beginning of the fourteenth century--the art of
gardening was much practised and encouraged by the Buddhist priests.
They even went so far as to ascribe imaginary religious and moral
attributes to the grouping of the stones, a custom which has more
or less survived to this day and is described elsewhere. In those
days a lake came to be regarded as a necessary feature, and poetical
names were given to the little islets, just as the pine-clad islands
of Matsu-shima have each their poetical name. Cascades also received
names according to their character, such as the “Thread Fall,” the
“Spouting Fall,” or the “Side Fall.” In the making of a garden
then, as to-day, the first work was the excavation of the lake, the
designing and forming of the islands, the placing in position of a
few of the most important stones, and finally the arrangement of the
waterfall or stream which was to feed the lake, and the outlet had
also to be carefully considered. After this period came the fashion
of representing lakes and rivers by means of hollowed-out beds and
courses, merely strewn with sand, pebbles, and boulders, a practice
followed also to this day where water is not available. Shallow water
or dried-up river-beds are suggested in this way, and therefore the
style received the name of _Dried-up Water Scenery_. Artificial hills
were used, stones and winding pathways were introduced, and large rocks
helped to suggest natural scenery.
It was in the fifteenth century that the art of gardening received
the greatest encouragement and attention at the hands of the Ashikaya
Regents, who also encouraged the other arts of flower arrangement--tea
ceremony and poetry. The Professors of _Cha no yu_ (tea ceremony)
became the principal designers of gardens, and they naturally turned
their attention to the ground which surrounded the rooms set apart
for this ceremonial tea-drinking; and to the famous Soami, who was a
Professor of Tea-ceremonial and the Floral Art, they owe the practice
of clipping trees and shrubs into fantastic shapes. Though the Japanese
never attained to the unnatural eccentricities of the Dutch in their
manner of using clipped trees, yet in many old and modern gardens a
pine-tree may be seen clipped and trained in the shape of a junk, and
a juniper may be trained to form a light bridge to fling across a
tiny stream; but as a rule the gardener contents himself by training
and clipping his pine-tree to mould it into the shape of an abnormal
storm-bent specimen of great age. To that period belonged Kobori
Enshiu, the designer of so many celebrated gardens, and to him we owe
the garden of the Katsura Rikui, a detached Palace near Kyoto, which,
though fallen into decay, retains much of its former beauty, especially
when the scarlet azalea bushes, which now escape the clipping they
no doubt were subjected to in old days, light up the scene, their
lichen-clad stems bending under the weight of their blossoms and
enhancing the beauty of the moss-grown lanterns and stones. The garden
which surrounded the temple of Kodaiji, a portion only of the grounds
of the old palace of Awata, the Konchi-in garden of the Nanzenji
Temple, and many other specimens of his work remain in Kyoto alone.
He is reported to have said that his ideal garden should express “the
sweet solitude of a landscape clouded by moonlight, with a half gloom
between the trees.” Rikiu, another great tea professor and designer
of landscape gardens, said the best conception of his fancy would be
that of the “lonely precincts of a secluded mountain shrine, with
the red leaves of autumn scattered around.” However different their
ideal, they all agreed that the tea garden was to be somewhat wild in
character, suggesting repose and solitude. Then came the more modern
style of gardening: from 1789 to 1830 was a period when large palaces
were built and surrounded by magnificent gardens, fit residences for
the great Tokugawa feudal lords. For these gardens great sums were
expended on collecting stones from all parts of the country, and often
a garden would be left unfinished until the exact stone suited to
express the required religious or poetical feeling, or else specially
required to complete a miniature natural scene, had been procured. The
extravagance in this craving for rare stones, which cost vast sums to
transport immense distances, reached such a pitch, that at last, in the
Tempo period (1830-1844), an edict was issued limiting the sum which
might be paid for a single specimen. Stone and granite lanterns of
infinite variety in size and shape were introduced with their poetical
names, each having a special position assigned to it by the unbending
laws which surround this art, for the arrangement of not only every
tree and stone, but almost every blade of grass and drop of water.
I feel my readers will begin to think that there must be a lack of
variety in these landscape gardens, but I can safely say that never
did I see--and I saw a great many--any two gardens, large or small,
which bore any resemblance to each other; the materials are the same,
but the design is never the same.
Garden water-basins, miniature pagodas, stone bridges, also of
infinite variety, and other garden ornaments, such as rustic arbours,
fanciful constructions of bamboo, reeds, or plaited rushes, primitive,
fragile-looking structures, but none the less costly, were made use
of, and a few rare birds, such as storks and cranes, were allowed to
wander and adorn the scene with their stately grace. Here and there the
crooked branches of stunted pine-trees of great age overhung the lake
or stream, transplanted probably with infinite care; but no trouble and
no expense was too great to make these gardens fitting settings for the
castles and palaces of those great lords. Alas, how few remain to-day
in anything like their former splendour; the hand of the Goth has
swept away most of the ancient glories of Yedo, and on the spot where
these princely dwellings and gardens stood, to-day some great factory
chimneys rise and belch forth columns of smoke, which will surely bring
death and destruction to the pines and cherry-trees
[Illustration: THE STORKS]
of Uyeno or the avenues of Mukojima, which are still the pride of Tokyo.
Tokyo may still retain the remains of some of her princely gardens, but
I fear she has lost her love of gardening; the town is too large, too
crowded; the rich who could afford to make new gardens, even if the old
ones are swept away, prefer to live in foreign houses of impossible
architectural design; the public gardens are no longer laid out in
true Japanese style, but suggestive rather of foreign gardens of the
worst form and taste, so if you would see the making of a new garden
it is to Kyoto you must wend your way. Here the love of landscape
gardening seems still alive, and though the gardens may not surround
the palaces of the Daimyos, yet these humbler gardens which as often
as not surround the house of a rich Osaka tradesman are none the less
beautiful for that reason; and I was glad to think that riches had not,
as is too often the case, brought with it a love for foreign life and
stamped out the true Japanese, and that here at least are left many who
are content to spend their hours of leisure in the contemplation and in
the repose of a true landscape garden.
In the course of an evening walk on the outskirts of Kyoto I came
upon a half-built house. Through the newly planted cryptomeria hedge
could be seen glimpses of stone lanterns, rocks, and a few trees
kept in place by bamboo props, while in the road outside lay stones
of all colours, shapes, and sizes. Garden coolies were passing in
and out, carrying baskets of earth slung on bamboo poles, so it was
evident that a garden was being made. My curiosity was aroused, so
I ventured within the enclosure, and, in the most polite language I
could command, asked permission of the owner to watch the interesting
work. A Japanese is always gratified by the genuine interest of a
foreigner in anything connected with his home, and will usually point
out the special features of the object of interest in eloquent and
poetical phrases, confusing enough to the foreigner, whose command of
the Japanese language cannot as a rule rise to such heights. On this
occasion, however, any explanation was unnecessary, the scene in itself
was sufficient to call forth my admiration and surprise. The piece
of ground occupied by the garden did not comprise more than half an
acre, and was merely the plot usually attached to any suburban villa
in England. Not withstanding the limited space, a perfect landscape
was growing out of the chaos of waste ground which had been chosen as
the site of the house. A miniature lake of irregular shape had been dug
out; an island consisting of just one bold rock, to be christened no
doubt in due time with some fanciful name, had been placed in position;
and there were the “Guardian Stone,” always the most important stone
in the near distance, and its associates the “Stone of Worship”--also
sometimes called the “Stone of Contemplation,” as from this stone the
best general view of the garden is obtained--and the “Stone of the Two
Deities.” The presence of these three stones being essential in the
composition of every garden, they are probably the first to be placed.
A few trees of venerable appearance had already been planted in the
orthodox places; and already one spreading pine-tree stretched across
the future lake, supported on an elaborate framework of bamboo, to
give it exactly the right shape and direction; near to it, and resting
on a slab of rock at the very edge of the water, was a stone lantern
of the “Snow Scene” shape; the two forming the principal features of
the garden, upon which the eye rested involuntarily. Another stone
lantern stood in the shadow of a tall and twisted pine, half buried
in low-growing shrubs, bedded in moss of a golden-brown colour. On
one side was a bank thickly planted with azaleas, groups of maples,
or camellias, and at the far end of the garden some tall evergreen
trees cleverly disguised the boundary line of the hedge and gave the
impression that the garden had no ending, save in the wooded hills that
shut in the surrounding valley. A cutting in the bank and a wonderfully
natural arrangement of “Cascade Stones” showed where the water would
eventually rush in from the stream outside, which had its source in
Lake Biwa. A path of beaten earth with stepping-stones embedded in it
wound round the little lake and through the grove at the side; a simple
bridge of mere slabs of stone crossed the water to where the pathway
ended in the inevitable tea-room. Many more lanterns, pagodas, and
other garden ornaments lay on the ground waiting for their allotted
place, while a whole nursery of trees carefully laid in loose earth
showed that much more planting was needed to complete the garden, which
would some day be the pride and delight of the owner’s heart.
The whole country is often searched for a tree of exactly the
right size and shape required for a particular position, and while
watching the work of making this new garden I was much struck by the
extraordinary skill the Japanese display in the transplanting of trees
of almost any size and age. The season chosen for their removal is
the spring, when the sap is rising, and the dampness of the climate
and the rich soil no doubt help considerably towards their success in
moving these old trees; unlike England, spring is their best season
for planting, as the trees will have all the benefit of the summer
rains and run no risk of drought or cold winds. The roots are trenched
round, to our idea, perilously near the tree; as much earth is retained
as possible and bound round with matting. Five or six coolies with a
length of rope, a few poles, and not a little ingenuity, will move the
largest tree in a very short time. There is no machinery or fuss of any
kind, merely a hand-barrow, on which the tree rests on its journey.
Very little preparation is made in the place where the tree is to be
planted; no trenching of the ground, or preparing of vast holes to
be filled with prepared soil, only a hole just large enough for the
ball of earth surrounding the roots is considered sufficient. The tree
is then put in place, upright or leaning, according to the effect
required, the soil tightly rammed round the roots, the necessary
pruning and propping carefully attended to; the ground artistically
planted with moss and made to look as if it had never been disturbed
for centuries, and the thing is done. I remember seeing a piece of
ground which was being prepared for building, on which were a few
plum-trees of considerable size and age; these were being carefully
removed, doubtless to give a venerable appearance to some new garden,
or to be planted in a nursery garden until they should be wanted
elsewhere,--surely a better fate than would have awaited them in our
country under similar circumstances, where the devastating axe of the
builder’s labourer would certainly have cleared the ground in a few
minutes of what he would have regarded as useless rubbish.