Japanese Water Garden: The Fundamentals
It must be emphasized that a Japanese water garden is exactly what it purports to be - it revolves around the beauty, bounty, and fluidity of water in its most natural state. Often, the other natural elements of sand, rocks, plants, and trees as well as manmade elements like bridges and ornaments play a supporting role to water. With that said, here are a few rules of thumb to achieve the beauty and bounty of a water garden, Japanese-style.
Keep It Natural
The fundamental objective of any Japanese water garden is to mimic Mother Nature's beauty and bounty, often with a Zen minimalist approach. As such, all the natural and artificial elements appear to adhere to the yin-yang philosophy of Eastern traditions. This means that the opposing forces are intimately interdependent and interconnected with each other such that an aura of harmony and balance is achieved.
As such, you must be aware of the significance and placements of each of the natural and artificial elements.
Water symbolizes serenity and purity, hence, its role as the heart of the water garden. Just like in nature, irregular curves are used instead of square patterns. Keep in mind, too, that fountains are a big no-no in a Japanese water garden. Try small waterfalls instead. You can even grow koi in the ponds as well.
Stones symbolize islands and mountains, which are arranged in triangular patterns of odd numbers. Also, you can employ them as pathways to represent the journey of life.
Sand is often used to mimic the fluidity of water, often combined with small gravel in raked arrangements in dry water gardens.
Plants and flowers are used relatively sparingly when compared with Western gardens. Also, these must reflect the passing of the seasons.
Bridges signify the crossing in a journey, which can be found over flowing small streams. As befits nature, the bridge must be made of wood.
Ornaments like lanterns and artifacts must play a passive role. Often, you must adhere to the yin-yang principle, thus, fire lanterns are placed near bodies of water.
You will observe that a Japanese water garden balances between mimicking nature as closely as possible while attempting to put order into the chaos that nature can be. Ultimately, you ought to find peace and serenity within the garden away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, even if you are just a few steps away from the latter.
Keep It Clean
For Eastern cultures, water represents purity, thus, serving as a link to the gods. Indeed, you will see basins of water in Shinto shrines from which worshipers must ritually cleanse themselves before entry into the holy grounds in accordance with this belief. In the Japanese water garden, the symbolism of water extends to the sense of aesthetics that pervades the entire place of contemplation. As such, you must employ clean lines, clean horizons and clean surroundings, no matter the season.
You can have your own Zen water garden in your home, no matter how small the available space. Often, you just need to do a little research, leaf through pictures of Japanese gardens and consult with a gardening expert to attain the garden of your dreams - one where you can find peace and serenity away from the crazy world.