Katsura Rikyu
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The Katsura Imperial Villa, which is known in Japan as Katsura Rikyu (Katsura Detached Palace) was created during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is difficult to write about Japanese gardens without mentioning architecture because of the way that traditional Japanese houses and gardens interpenetrate each other. This is especially true of the Katsura Imperial Villa, which displays a total fusion of house and garden. When I use the word "villa" I am referring to the main house, the pavilions, and the garden.
The Katsura Imperial Villa was created for Prince Tomohito (1579 - 1629), the younger brother of Emperor Goyozei (1571 - 1617). The design of the garden has often been attributed to the famous garden designer, Kobori Enshu (1579 - 1647), but it is very likely that Prince Tomohito was the principle designer and that he was advised by Kobori Enshu.
The Katsura Imperial Villa is a complex work of art which is rooted in a thousand years of earlier Japanese gardens. It is closely connected with the gardens of the Heian Period (795 - 1195), mainly because Prince Tomohito's favorite novel, The Tale of Genji, describes villas of the Heian Period and Prince Tomohito wanted his garden to evoke passages of this novel.
The Tale of Genji"describes gardens which were filled with flowers. This may come as a surprise to many people, because flowers don't play much of a role in most Japanese gardens; even the surviving Heian gardens are now composed of water, stones, moss, and trees. I find it very interesting that Prince Tomohito didn't plant the flowers which are mentioned in The Tale of Genji, since that would be the easiest way to remind visitors of that novel.
The Katsura Imperial Villa was never an attempt to recreate the gardens in The Tale of Genji; it combines literary images from that novel with design influences from tea gardens.
Zen Buddhism became a dominant influence in Japan during the turbulent centuries between the Heian Period and the Edo Period (1615 - 1867) . The Japanese tea ceremony is very much a product of Zen culture and the gardens of tea houses had been influencing Japanese homes and gardens for over a century. Kyoto's Silver Pavilion is an early example of Zen influence, dating from the late fifteenth century. By the time that the Katsura Imperial Villa was begun, Zen aesthetics had transformed the brilliant gardens of Heian Japan into the serene compositions which we think of as typical Japanese gardens.
