![]() The zigzag bridge, a staple of Japanese gardens, refers to a 10th-century poem about a traveler who happens upon a profusion of Japanese iris blooming in shallow water beside an eight-section plank bridge. As one looks west, two bridges - one earthen, the other a zigzag of cedar planks - span the lake. In Japanese gardens, odd numbers are considered auspicious, and vertical lines are a mark of formality. Across from the Emperor's Gate stood five impressive shore pines, cropped to emphasize their height. ![]() ![]() As I headed north, the lake came into view on the left. The scale may be miniature, but the pleasures are not.Ī hillside forest of maples, conifers and rhododendrons soon changes character. Tucked into a stream-carved valley within the 230-acre Washington Park Arboretum, its mere 3.5 acres of recovered marshland was transformed in 1960 into a compressed rendering of mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, orchards and a village harbor. Seattle's Japanese Garden was my introduction to both the symbolism and the sensory pleasures of this art form. On a West Coast jaunt this April, as I walked through the Japanese gardens of Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, what bowled me over was the sheer beauty and wit of the arrangements. Yet a casual visitor doesn't need CliffsNotes to appreciate these gardens. These allusions are drawn from Japan's early animistic religion, Shintoism, which construes rocks and trees as dwellings of sacred spirits from Buddhist cosmology, especially its austere tributary, Zen and from classic Japanese literary references. Bridges denote passageways between two worlds. ![]() Stones represent Mount Fuji - or turtles, or cranes. To the cognoscenti, each element symbolizes something larger. The garden doesn't copy or improve on nature it stylizes and miniaturizes, and sometimes even dispenses with green entirely. The garden doesn't show off prized specimens it sets a single exquisite plant off the path, on a mound of moss, next to a weathered stone. A FINE Japanese garden doesn't make a statement it draws the visitor into a wordless conversation. ![]()
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