Before moving on to Okinawa, our next stop in Japan, we decided to spend our last days in Tokyo exploring the streets of the city without a plan. In heavily populated metropolises like Tokyo, even though the skyline of the city changes, what doesn’t change is the behavior of the people living in the metropolis. Office people who claim that they can’t start the day without coffee, salaried workers who have to leave the house at the same time every day to catch the same bus, children waiting for the bus on the streets before the sun to go to school. It is not easy to get away from this rush. You probably have to wait for your annual leave or take a long car ride to get away for a while.
At this point, Japanese gardens, each of them being a separate work of art, come to your rescue. Like an oasis in the city, green areas where you can get away from the city and breathe a little bit. The history of Japanese gardens goes much deeper than a city planning. According to estimates, it was inspired by the observations of early Japanese ambassadors and travelers during their visits to China and blended with Japanese culture and art over time and took its current form. To give you an idea from a historical point of view, the first gardens began to emerge in 794-1185 with the planned placement of ponds, trees, rocks and imitation of nature. In the previous article, I mentioned how deeply intertwined the belief systems in Japan are with nature. With the spread of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Japanese gardens began to be used for meditation and began to be shaped according to the art of Buddhism. In later periods, they became calm and peaceful areas for tea, which has a very important place in Japanese culture.
It would be wrong to see Japanese gardens as just places to drink tea or take a walk. They are also spiritual, philosophical and designed to integrate with nature. The gardens are designed according to Zen Buddhism to evoke vitality and peace in people. If you can read the design according to the belief system, you can see that the rocks represent the mountains, the water means purification and the bridges connect the material world and the spiritual world. Of course, I was not aware of these until I read about the importance of Japanese gardens. For me, they were just beautifully designed gardens, but after reading a little, I realized that these areas are works of art.
Japanese gardens aim to embrace all the beauty of nature. Cherry blossoms, maple trees and moss-covered rocks reflect the changing landscape of the seasons, creating a dynamic and ever-changing landscape. These gardens teach people to appreciate the cycle of life and to recognize that every age has its own beauty.
It is possible to see Japanese gardens in different categories, such as Karesansui Gardens, which are more associated with meditations, or Chaniwa, or Tea Gardens, which are more simply designed, or Kaiyu-Shiki gardens, which are designed for long walks. It is possible to come across these gardens not only in Tokyo but all over Japan.
It is very pleasing to see that the Japanese are still keeping this culture alive in the cities that are now planned in a uniform, soulless and aimless way. It makes me very happy to see places that still preserve their soul among the typical cultural trends that Social Media is trying to create and spread as trends. Our duty is to read and understand these values wherever they are, and to see them as a heritage and protect them.
See you in the next article 🙂
