Japanese gardens

This is the ceiling of the tea house at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois, which are just over an hour south of Madison. I visited the gardens for the first time today. I tend to be ungenerously skeptical about and, yes, sometimes even a little disapproving of Occidental fetishization of the Ways of the East, so I went in with neutral expectations. Two hours later, I was profoundly regretting that I had not arranged my schedule to allow me to stay all day. These gardens are an experience. They are already green with lush spring growth, and the trilling drone of the pond frogs (in the height of mating season, we were told) outdid the soothing white noise of the coursing waterfalls. There were a few rare botanical wonders (flowering dogwood trees in both pink and white, tree peonies in bud, cinnamon bark maples), but most of the gardens are filled with readily available garden-variety (so to speak) plants such as groundcover pachysandra, viburnums, green and gold spireas, yews, pines, Japanese maples, Siberian irises, and hostas and more hostas decidedly not of the rare and expensive collector varieties, all arranged to exquisite effect. True to type, these gardens emphasize foliage over flowers, but numerous azaleas were blooming, including what looked to be Rhododendron mucronulatum, sometimes known as the "Snow Azalea," "Manchurian azalea," or "Korean rhododendron," which blooms before its leaves emerge in the spring.

There's a haiku by Issa that hits the spot:

Hyaku ryō no
ishi ni mo makenu
tsutsuji kana

Here's a translation of this haiku into English by David Lanoue, from his Haiku of Kobayashi Issa site. And, hey! I'll give it a shot too, taking advantage of the very convenient syllable counts of the subject azalea's botanical name:

Beaucoup-bucks boulder
outrocked by Rhododendron
mucronulatum.

Inspiration: the Photo-haiku Gallery, a site where visitors can post photos and post their own haiku to photos. I enjoyed the page with this photo of a Japanese garden, and chuckled (no, make that laughed out loud) at one of the accompanying haikus (scroll down the page; it's the one that begins with "summery garden"). I've included more photos from today's garden visit in the extended post, just in case you might be so inspired too.

Fence.

Bench.

Post.

Pier.

Garden.

Comments

[gardensole]

For me the most remarkable part of the Anderson garden is the magic that makes the visitor forget where the garden is. It seems to have no bounds. Streams come & go as if they are real. The boundaries are invisible. I have deep respect for this kind of magic, this kind of art.

I have been to quite a few japanese style gardens and enjoy the style but they usually seem to be islands defined by the contrast surrounding them (the one at Chicago Botanic for example). Anderson is unique in my experience and truly makes you understand the contemplative aspects for the style. The structures are beautiful. Who knew Pachysandra could be so poetic?

[avril]

Are flowering dogwoods uncommon in your area? Here, both the pink and white varieties are a sure sign that spring has arrived, appearing in yards and gardens, along highways and growing wild in the woods. They are used profusely in churches (especially Baptist) at Easter due to the legend of Christ attached to their flowers. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/trees/dogwood.html

[Chan S.]

Gardensole, your comment expresses it perfectly!

Avril, Rockford is just 75 miles south, but it tends to be a tad warmer, and some marginally hardy plants here do OK there. I love dogwood trees--dating back to when my husband and I took the New Orleans-to-D.C. train on one leg of our honeymoon in late April and saw dogwoods in bloom for hundreds of miles along the route. Dearly wish I could grow one here...maybe I'll give it a try one of these days.

[gardensole]

I grew up in southern Ohio and keep trying to push the limits to grow old friends and memories; sycamores, osage orange, american beech. And I've won some & lost some but I love dogwoods so much that I won't even try...

[JohnL]

Chan, great post.

A breath of relaxation at the beginning of a busy day.
Informative, poetic, and beautiful.
Perfect use of the Internet.

(I wonder if there are Kanji that could convey those three sentences in haiku form?)

[Chan S.]

Gardensole, I know what you mean. I'm very grateful to have found a place so close where I can see them again.

John, thanks for the compliment, and what a very nice haiku!

With some help from AltaVista Babel Fish:
使用中日の初めに 弛緩の呼吸
報知的, 詩的, 美しい
インターネットを使用する完全な方法
(My expertise in kanji is pretty much limited to 4 strokes or less, so this may very well be the Japanese equivalent of "Engrish"...to all who actually know Japanese well, gomennasai.)

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The 5.5 acre Japanese Garden is composed of five distinct garden styles. When we enter a Japanese garden, the desired effect is to realize a sense of peace, harmony, and tranquility and to experience the feeling of being a part of nature. In a deep sense, the Japanese garden is a living reflection of the long history and traditional culture of Japan. Influenced by Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies, there is always "something more" in these compositions of stone, water, and plants than meets the eye.

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Japanese gardens were developed under the influences of the distinctive and stylized Chinese gardens. One of the great interest for the historical development of the Japanese garden, bonseki, bonsai and related arts is the c. 1300 Zen monk Kokan Shiren and his rhymeprose essay Rhymeprose on a Miniature Landscape Garden.

The tradition of Japanese gardening was historically passed down from sensei to apprentice. In recent decades this has been supplemented by various trade schools. The opening words of Zōen's Illustrations for designing mountain, water and hillside field landscapes (1466) are "If you have not received the oral transmissions, you must not make gardens" and its closing admonition is "You must never show this writing to outsiders. You must keep it secret

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These days, stress is an ever compiling thing; it comes at us from all directions. And, having a quiet place to retreat to, can help relieve or remove some of the daily stresses. There are many avenues to help relieve stress, some use gardening, others use video games, but I found having a quite place to slip away to works the best. Having a nice place, something like a Japanese garden like this could help.