The Secrets of Gardens, from Europe to Asia (Part 2)
- Apina Viajera
- Aug 10, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 17, 2024
With this two-part post we inaugurate the Crossroads of Cultures category of the blog. The main idea is to create a space for comparison between cultural attractions that can be found in different parts of the world, to explain them "through the eyes of" the other culture.
In the previous part, we looked at the history of European gardens, their different main styles and the elements they shared with Asian gardens. Today we are going to focus on Asian gardens and see how they differ from the cases we met.
Gardens in Asia: harmony with nature
In the first part of this theme we saw that the trajectory of gardens in Europe was relatively recent and that it had a slogan of domestication of nature and the environment.
All this has to do with a central principle of modern European culture: the centrality of the human being (anthropocentrism), superior to any other species and its environment. As we shall see, Asian gardens are an excellent example of another conception of the world, where people are integrated with the environment and humbly place themselves as one more piece in the order of nature.
Asian gardens are known for their harmony, serenity and deep symbolism. In countries such as China, Japan and Korea, these gardens reflect for example Taoist philosophy, Zen Buddhism and feng shui.
Let us now look at some common characteristics of Asian gardens that differentiate them from their European counterparts. For the sake of clarification, we will concentrate on East Asia (China, Japan, Korea); later on we will delve deeper into other areas such as Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, etc.
Ten characteristics of Asian gardens
Here are the top 10 features of East Asian gardens, no matter which country you visit:
1 - Harmony with the surroundings: in oriental landscaping it is essential that the garden does not stand out abruptly by contrasting too much with its natural surroundings. On the contrary, it is a continuity of the wider area of which the garden is a part. Thus, Asian gardens work on the principle of "borrowed landscape" (shakkei in Japanese; jiejing in Chinese). This creates the illusion that Asian gardens are larger than they really are, which is very useful given the lack of area in many East Asian countries.
2 - Integration with architecture: one of the central principles of East Asian architecture is the search for integration of indoor and outdoor spaces. Thus, there are also many similarities in shapes and colours between the garden and the architecture that is part of the complex or nearby. In Asian cases, the gardens are not "subjected" to the architecture, far from it, they are an equal part of the same aesthetic system.
3 - Places of introspection: European gardens, reserved for royalty and the aristocracy, were spaces for sociability, for playing the game of gallant love and weaving political alliances. Asian gardens, on the other hand, are a special space for the encounter of the individual with nature. Their intimate and peaceful spaces (e.g. jeongja in the Korean case) encourage personal reflection and meditation practices (such as the Japanese tea ceremony, roji).
4 - Enjoy the countryside: the great noble mansions or royal palaces of Europe built their gardens within urban complexes or even in the heart of cities. In contrast, the vast majority of Asian gardens are located in rural areas: near forests, mountains, rivers or caves. Therefore, in order to enjoy these artificial green spaces, it was always necessary to move around, to make a journey, which marked a person's departure from everyday life for a special activity. In fact, this is why in Asian gardens you will find animals and insects (carp, butterflies, rabbits, turtles, ducks, mantises).
5 - Use of natural elements: unlike European examples, where exotic, sophisticated or even processed materials appear, Asian gardens always incorporate materials such as rocks, sand and wood from the area (e.g. karesansui, in the Japanese case). This also allows another consequence that is not contemplated in European gardens: the noble ageing of garden materials with the passage of time (wabi-sabi in Japanese, beauty in the imperfect, merit in old age).
6 - Complementary opposites: if in European gardens we generally spoke of symmetry and the same style throughout the complex, the concept of duality in oriental philosophy is reflected in the design of green spaces where a balance is sought between opposite but complementary principles (yin-yang, in Chinese; in-yo in Japanese). For example, spaces of light and shadow, water and earth, movement and stillness alternate.
7 - Convoluted route: European gardens are wide, have demarcated paths and generally have a "central" or privileged viewpoint from which the whole space can be seen. By contrast, in East Asia another fundamental principle is the intricate path: from the entrance to the garden there are winding paths to view portions of the space at a time (miegakure, Japanese for "hiding and revealing"). As with the "borrowed landscape", this also creates the illusion that Asian gardens are larger than they really are.
8 - Changes of scale: the Asian garden plays with resizing objects. Thus, there may be giant-sized rocks (suseok in Korean, gongshi in Chinese) or miniature trees (penjing in Chinese, saikei or bonsai in Japanese). This leads to a game of appreciation of detail: admiring the complexity of the big made small and the subtleties that appear in something small made big.
9 - Sacred spaces: East Asian traditions of religiosity, such as Taoism, Buddhism or Shinto, place great importance on natural spaces. Gardens are often built on special sites related to the philosophy and culture of the country. Every Asian garden symbolises a connection between the transcendental and the human. The opposite is true for European gardens, where at most the religious elements we can see are sculptures or ornaments of the gods of Greece and Rome, but they are there for aesthetic reasons, not devotion.
10 - Open all year round: European gardens were designed for a particular season. For cooling in summer, for strolling in spring, for sunbathing in winter in warm areas. In contrast, East Asian gardens are designed to showcase the beauty of all four seasons; any good garden should provide year-round experiences. Thus, with the passing of the calendar, parts of the garden become more or less prominent, "on" or "off", but the garden remains always available.
Types of East Asian gardens
Beyond this, you probably have more than one Asian garden in mind and recognise that they are not the same as each other. And you are right, over time different styles of gardening have emerged, mainly these three:
- Chinese garden: this type is the oldest of all, dating back more than 3,500 years. For each dynasty and in each region there are variations, but the most important principles remain the same.
Chinese gardens are usually large in size. There is always a main building in the centre of the garden, or luxurious tower-boats (shifang). Moreover, in Chinese gardens, the routes are usually pre-established and allow for fewer forks, with the aim of always starting from the one entrance and arriving at the main area.
In China, the tradition of intellectual gardens (wenren yuan), with spaces for painting and poetry, has been very strong. For both the great families and the mandarins - the Chinese bureaucracy - gardens were places for personal growth and learning.
In Chinese gardens there are fruit trees and an outer perimeter always enclosed by a decorative wall. Finally, unlike in Japan, in China we find areas that imitate terrestrial landscapes, especially mountainous or inland landscapes.
- Japanese garden: they are more recent compared to their Asian neighbours, although certainly much older than the European ones. The technique was imported from China and adapted to the needs of Japan. At first glance, Japanese gardens may seem more chaotic than Chinese gardens, because of the principle of "obeying the objects" (kowan ni shitagau), i.e. accommodating the general layout of the garden to what the materials demand by their innate characteristics.
In Japanese gardens we always find at least one bridge, an extremely important symbolic element because of its association with the linking of planes of reality (the past with the future, the earthly with the divine, the impure with the pure, the feminine with the masculine). We also find the technique of covering portions of the garden with mould, which is an element of prestige: it requires a great deal of time and symbolises a good old age.
In addition, Japanese gardens are the most ornate of all their Asian counterparts. There are sculptures, stone lanterns as in China and sculptural pruning techniques (niwaki). Unlike in China, Japan has areas that mimic seascapes.
- Korean gardens: they are older than Japanese gardens, although not as old as Chinese gardens. Korean gardens are dominated by ornamental rocks (susok), carefully selected and arranged. In Korean culture, rocks represent celestial perfection and are the most powerful element of nature.
Furthermore, Korean gardens place the greatest emphasis on disguising all the work and time it takes to build them. A great Korean garden is one that deceives us and appears to be "effortless".
The accompanying architecture generally has very vibrant colours (dancheong), the three most important colours in nature: green, light blue, reddish brown. Finally, in all these gardens there is always at least one pond.
Now you know the Asian gardens and can play at recognising the different styles when you visit! Whatever they are, they are all a beautiful stop on our travels. They are a unique window to appreciate the culture of these countries and their relationship with nature, and don't forget that you can also find examples outside Asia!
Questions for our readers:
What is your favourite East Asian garden?
Why do you like to visit monumental gardens on your travels?
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