Traditional Japanese Garden Design Styles

Karesansui Gardens

Karesansui Gardens (枯山水) or "dry landscape” gardens were influenced mainly by Zen Buddhism and can be found at Zen temples of meditation. Unlike other traditional gardens, there is no water present in Karesansui gardens. However, there is raked gravel or sand that simulates the feeling of water. The rocks/gravel used are chosen for their artistic shapes, and mosses as well as small shrubs are used to further garnish the Karesansui style. All in all, the rocks and moss are used to represent ponds, islands, boats, seas, rivers, and mountains in an abstract way. - Example: Ryōan-ji, temple in Kyoto, has a garden famous for representing this style. Daisen-in, created in 1513, is also particularly renowned.

Tsukiyama Gardens


Tsukiyama Gardens often copy famous landscapes from China or Japan, and they commonly strive to make a smaller garden appear more spacious. This is accomplished by utilizing shrubs to block views of surrounding buildings, and the garden's structure usually tries to make onlookers focus on nearby mountains in the distance. By doing this, it seems that the garden has the mountains as part of its grounds. Ponds, streams, hills, stones, trees, flowers, bridges, and paths are also used frequently in this style.

Chaniwa Gardens

Chaniwa Gardens are built for holding tea ceremonies. There is usually a tea house where the ceremonies occur, and the styles of both the hut and garden are based on the simple concepts of the sado. Usually, there are stepping stones leading to the tea house, stone lanterns, and stone basins (tsukubai) where guests purify themselves before a ceremony.

Japanese garden designs might also fall into one of these styles:

-Kanshoh-style gardens which are viewed from a residence.

-Pond gardens, for viewing from a boat.

-Strolling gardens (kaiyū-shiki), for viewing a sequence of effects from a path which circumnavigates the garden. The 17th-century Katsura garden in Kyoto is a famous exemplar.

Other gardens also use similar rocks for decoration, some of which come from distant parts of Japan. In addition, bamboos and related plants, evergreens including Japanese black pine, and such deciduous trees as maples grow above a carpet of ferns and mosses.