One must therefore discover ways to communicate this emotion to others. Japan's leading contemporary Zen garden designer, Masuno Shunmyo, an 18th-generation Zen priest, explains this connection between Zen and the arts: "Through Zen ascetic practice, an emotion of the mind is found that can't be directly exposed or understood. All manner of activities, from sweeping the garden and chopping vegetables, to the tea ceremony, ikebana (flower arrangement), and landscape gardening are all considered practices of Zen discipline, aimed at focussing the mind and working toward spiritual awakening. Zen isn't just sitting cross-legged and meditating (which is zazen, or seated meditation). But as Trevor Legget wrote in the book Introduction to Zen Training (Tuttle): "Many warriors were men of culture, poets and artists, with their work often illuminated by their Zen training." It may seem strange that fierce warriors should also be into tea and gardening. Some samurai also devoted themselves to the Zen-inspired arts of tea ceremony and landscape gardening, like Ueda Soko (1563-1650), who not only founded his own style of tea ceremony, still practised today, but also designed the fabulous Shukkeien Garden in Hiroshima. Zen was quickly embraced by the samurai, who identified with its emphasis on simplicity, self-discipline, and the importance of meditation to find one's true self, undistracted by ostentation and worldly possessions. But in the Kamakura Era, the balance of power shifted, and the samurai-warrior class rose to prominence. Lords and ladies of the Imperial Court would go boating there amid the sumptuous beauty. Previously, the gardens of the Heian Era (794-1185) were lavish recreations of Buddhist visions of paradise. Explorer and art historian Langdon Warner ( the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character) observed that Japanese gardens are designed "to express the highest truths of religion and philosophy precisely as other civilisations have made use of the arts of literature and philosophy". But there's more to the gardens than mere beauty. Rock and stones are vital elements in any Japanese garden, and the ultimate expression of the beauty of stones lies in the sekite i, or rock gardens, expanses of raked white gravel, dotted with strategically-placed stones. The ancient enigma that resonates today As 19th-Century writer Lafcadio Hearn wrote: "to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand the beauty of stones." Yet in Japan, some of the most astonishing gardens consist of nothing but rocks and stones. Planting was performed outside of the wire fence to connect the new landscape to the existing open space this was successfully done by using perennials and grasses whose foliage matches that of the native hillside, blurring the boundary line of the garden and aesthetically extending the backyard up into the adjacent open space.For most gardeners, stones – along with slugs, blackfly and weeds – are a pest, something to be eradicated. The plant palette uses grasses and rushes to further establish in the subconscious that a natural water source does exist. Natural rusting Cor-ten steel fencing adds a layer of interest throughout the garden softening the 6’ high surrounding fencing and helping to carry the users eye from the ground plane up past the fence lines into the horizon the cor-ten steel also acts as a ribbon, tie-ing the multiple spaces together in this garden. At the north eastern end of the integral colored concrete wall, a warm western red cedar bench extends perpendicular out from the water feature on the outside of the slate patio maximizing seating space in the limited size garden. The stainless steel channel also provides children with an opportunity to safely play with water by floating toy boats down the channel. The integral colored concrete wall begins at the main water feature and weaves to the south west corner of the yard where water once again emerges out of a 4” stainless steel channel reinforcing the notion that this garden backs up against a natural spring. Koi Fish, Gold fish and water plants bring a new mini ecosystem of life, and provide a focal point and meditational environment. A water feature is the backdrop to this outdoor room extending the flooring material (slate) into the vertical plane covering a wall that houses three playful stainless steel spouts that spill water into a large basin.
A new outdoor living room was created, with silver-grey brazilian slate flooring, and a smooth integral pewter colored concrete wall defining and retaining earth around it. This small tract home backyard was transformed into a lively breathable garden.
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