
Japanese Garden is a cultural form of gardening that is intended to produce a scene that mimics nature as much as possible through the use of trees, shrubs, rocks, sand, artificial hills, ponds, like running water and art forms. Zen and Shinto traditions are both a large part of the Japanese garden, and as a result, the gardens have a contemplative and reflective mood. Japanese garden is very different from western style and most would say it is much more soothing meditational and soul.
In the Japanese garden, there are three basic methods of scenario. The first is a smaller scale. The reduced scale is the art of making a real scene of nature, mountains, rivers, trees, and everyone, and playing on a smaller scale. Symbolization involves abstraction and generalization. An example would be the use of white sand to suggest the sea. Borrowed viewpoints refers to the artists who use something like an ocean of forest as a backdrop, but end up becoming an important part of the scene.
There are essentially two types of Japanese garden: tsukiyami, which is a garden of the hill and consists mainly of mountains and lakes. The other is hiraniwa, which is basically exactly the opposite of tsukiyami: a garden flat with no hills or ponds.
The basic elements used in the Japanese garden include stones, gravel, water, moss, stones, fences and hedges. Rocks are most often used as centers and achieve a presence of spirituality to the garden. According to Shinto tradition rocks embody the spirits of nature. Gravel is used as a kind of definition of the area and is used to mimic the flow of water when it organized properly. The stones were used to create a border, and are carved in the shape of lanterns. Water in the form of a pond, stream or waterfall, is an essential part of a Japanese garden. It may be in the form of water or portrayed by gravel, but no matter how water is, therefore, essential to a balance of Japanese gardens.
There are various forms and types of plants that are the signature of the Japanese garden, the largest being a Bonsai. Bonsai is the art of training everyday, average plants, such as pines, cypresses, Holly, cedar, cherry, maple, and Hague, to look like the big trees in miniature form only. These trees, five centimeters to one meter and are kept small by pruning, re-potting, pinching growth, the wires and branches.
Japanese garden is a tradition that has crossed the Muso Soseki, poet, said that "the gardens are a result of transformation." A Japanese garden is sure to bring many different feelings and is certainly a transformative experience.


