Japanese Gardens
Whenever I hear about Japanese gardens, a couple of
things come to mind. The first thing of course is bonsais – the
one thing that has come to define what being Japanese and
Japanese gardens is all about. The other thing is the art of
Zen. I have scarcely come across Japanese Gardens where the
theme has not been Zen or Zen related. If the look and feel of
the Japanese Garden is not inspired by Zen, then the house
certainly is. If the house too is not, then the entire thing
must be in Japan!
But coming back to Japanese Gardens, my fascination started
when I came across the very first Japanese Garden of my life.
My mother works in a language school and one of her colleagues
is a Japanese professor. Naturally, he had spent a great deal
of time in Japan, mastering the language and during the course
of his stay there, he had picked up many Japanese activities.
One of which was the art of maintaining a Japanese Garden.
One day, he organized a small party at home to celebrate the
birth of his first grandson and all of his colleagues and their
families were invited. That was when I happened to visit his
home. And I fell in love with his miniature Japanese garden the
moment I saw it. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that it
was a Japanese garden or even an oriental garden of any sort.
All I knew was that it was extremely neat, clean and seemingly
so delicate. I was almost scared to walk along the stones as I
felt that my footsteps would disturb the tranquility.
My host must have seen the look of awe in my eyes, for he
came beside me to stand and patiently explain what the whole
tranquil thing was. He told me that it was a Japanese Garden
and that there were certain things that defined a Japanese
Garden. He pointed out his lovely bonsai specimens to me,
taking the time to explain the unique features of each one. He
also told me about the Koi fish in the pond and explained that
although they were Chinese, they added the element of
prosperity to his Japanese garden.
In fact, I would not be wrong to say that in a matter of two
hours, he converted me from someone who had never even heard of
a Japanese Garden into someone totally in awe of the beauty,
simplicity and meaning of the art of a Japanese garden. Today,
I have my own Japanese garden. And I have only the patient old
master to thank for this indulgence.
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