The Roots of Japanese Gardens
Feb 19, 1999 -
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totally Japanese. He says that if the location is not ideal, that the presence of these guardian deities could be secured by planting nine willow trees to the east, nine judas trees to the south, seven maples to the west, and three cypresses to the north. This approach would have been totally unacceptable to the Chinese, the basic idea behind feng shui is that streams of chi (meaning vital spirit or cosmic breath) flow though the earth and were affected by the earth's topography. The symbolic approach of the Japanese ignored the Chinese idea of chi, but it did free the Japanese gardens to develop in unique ways. For example, the Japanese are satisfied with "dry ponds" in which raked gravel symbolizes water. The Chinese always wanted to have real water in their gardens, because water was a source of benevolent influences, a dry pond would not have served their purpose.
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