Japanese tea gardens

I am often asked about Japanese tea gardens and the important ceremony. Both are steeped in traditions that date back hundreds of years and are not as complicated as you might imagine.

Japanese gardens in their most popular form originated in China and over time developed in style and substance without ever losing their spiritual significance and traditions. Tea was not even cultivated in Japan until the early 8th century and was consumed mainly for medicinal reasons. Chinese Buddhist priests described their preparation of tea in a book called ‘Cha Ching’ and the content of this book forms the basis of the tea ceremony in a Japanese tea garden today.

Hundreds of years ago, monks and priests were largely responsible for the design and construction of Japanese gardens and the importance of religion and meditation within these gardens was very important. The priests drank tea to aid them in meditation and thus the Japanese tea garden and eventually the tea ceremony itself was born.

As a consequence, Japanese tea gardens are spiritual havens for creators and visitors alike. The ceremony is strictly observed and is a forerunner of the tea garden itself. Japanese tea gardens never look artificial, a golden rule of this type of oriental garden, and they should look natural. This is achieved through careful design and highly skilled construction.

The natural look of the Japanese tea garden was intended to be enjoyed from the garden entrance, which is usually through a gate, along a carefully laid out stone path that in turn leads to the tea house or a small viewpoint in some cases. Common ingredients are steps, small groups of trees, and stone lanterns.

It is essential due to its design that a Japanese tea garden is visible from the path leading to the tea house, the construction has been done in such a way that this provides the best view of the garden.

Tea in Japan in the Heian period was a rare commodity and this dictated the Japanese attitude towards tea and its consumption. The formalities were drafted and the ceremony itself was based on its scarcity. I am sure that if tea had been grown in Japan and drunk by many more people than it actually was, the Japanese tea ceremony would not have been part of the history of the country and the culture of Japanese gardens.

There are many good examples of this type of garden around the world. Outside of Japan, a couple of notables can be found in Golden Gate Park in San Fransisco, California and there is a beautiful example as part of the ‘Sunken Gardens’ in San Antonio in Texas, USA.

Japanese Tea Gardens: An Article by Russ Chard