Dianne Bellamy’s blog

Enjoyed Genevieve's presentation on Buddhism today. It all helps us to appreciate Japanese culture and design to a greater degree - to gaze on Japanese gardens with a greater understanding of the culture that impacted their design. I had not realised it was the aristocracy who initially adopted Buddhist thinking. In my reading for my presentation on stroll gardens, which because of their size only the aristocracy could afford, Buddhism influenced their design.
It is interesting but the more you learn about the worlds great religions the more you see the basic core of their truths and codes of behaviour are so similar.

Fascinating reading Sakuteiki: visions of the Japanese Garden written in the 11C to understand the significance of the original design of Japanese gardens. It was written during a period when aspects of Chinese and Korean culture, imported over previous centuries were re-examined and transmuted into a distinctly Japanese concept. The act of standing a stone upright was spiritually and aesthetically powerful and central to the process of making a garden - stones were animate and their desires considered. Through the medium of stones the gods could be induced to descend to earth to bestow blessings of good health and good harvests.The Chinese philosophy of mountains(yang) and water (yin) as the fundamental building blocks of the natural world was absorbed and gardens always included these two vital elements. Gardens were considered to be works of art that extract an aesthetic essence from nature. There were also in an extensive list of taboos about placements of stones and the direction of water flow and many other aspects of design. Stones were placed as they had been placed where they were found in nature, not reversed or laid down if they had originally been found standing.The natural world was believed to express an innate balance. Using natural elements in the same way in the garden brought nature's balance into the household.