Author and award-winning garden designer Sophie Walker has devoted years to researching and visiting Japanese gardens. In fact, she’s written an extensive book on the subject, The Japanese Garden, and is currently working on a second. In a guest article for Niwaki Field Report No. 2, she shares some of her key findings – from the attitude of the gardeners to the philosophy that informs each carefully timed cut.

As you might imagine, there’s a lot to dig into. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve learnt.

It’s often said that the Japanese love of gardens stems from an appreciation for the natural world. This is certainly a useful starting point, but we need to go a little further and think about how Japan experiences the natural world. In spite of years of technological advances, the country remains at the mercy of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and typhoons … you name it). Ancient Shinto belief states that these forces, being natural, cannot be evil and, furthermore, that there is no distinction between the natural world and mankind. We are in and of nature – we’re not looking in from the outside. This position reinforces the idea that natural environments require our respect, rather than our conquest. Japanese gardens express this in subtle ways, and Sophie Walker knows a thing or two about what this looks like in practice.

Despite their careful (and very deliberate) maintenance, Japanese gardens are inspired by the country’s wilder landscape. Every act, from the careful pruning of a tree to the deliberate placement of a rock, is done with the purpose of bringing this broader environment down to human scale. Of course, there are practical reasons too – Sukashi-ko, ‘the art of thinning’ – is done to protect trees from the weight of winter snow (more on this here). From an artistic point of view, these actions also draw out the inherent qualities of a tree and align it more closely with its associated poetic value. In Japanese gardens, as in Japanese design, there is a search for uncovering ‘the essence’ of a thing.

The term ‘Niwaki’, means small garden tree, and stems from the idea of training a tree specifically for the garden. Some carry symbolic meaning, such as the great white boat pine (Pinus pentaphylla) at the temple of Manshu-in – a reminder of the vessel that brought Buddhist teachings to Japan – while others, like cherry trees planted just beyond a garden wall, are designed to mimic distant clouds. Azaleas are equally popular for this reason, thanks to their small flowers and ability to handle close, cloud-like clipping. Above all, trees are deeply embedded in Shinto belief and are seen as embodying the stillness and stability of faith. Certain species (pine in particular) are also believed to be occupied by Kami – natural spirits – which, from what we can gather, are a good thing to have in the garden (approach with caution!).