bugakuryū teien 武学流庭園

Keywords
Architecture
Gardens

Lit. garden of the Bugaku lineage. A style of Japanese garden developed in the middle of the Edo period by Ōishi Bugaku 大石武学 (dates unknown), a gardener from Edo who moved to Mutsu 陸奥 Province in Aomori Prefecture to serve the Tsugaru 津軽 clan. The style mixes conservative elements of 16th-17th-century gardens, as faithfully preserved in the garden manual *Tsukiyama teizōden 築山庭造伝 published in 1735, with an emphasis on the spirit of Shinto. One new feature of the Bugaku lineage garden, which is thought to indicate an interest in Shinto is the emphasis on the large flat stone commonly called the raihaiseki 礼拝石 in earlier gardens, but here called shinpaiseki 神拝石 (see *haiseki 拝石). An important figure in the development of the Bugaku lineage gardens is Takayama Teizan (dates unknown), who was dispatched by the Tsugaru clan to Kyoto to study landscape design. His disciples included Kowata Teiju 小幡亭樹 and Ikeda Teigetsu 池田亭月. Good examples of bugakuryū include the late 19th-century Kiyofuji 清藤 residence by Nomoto Dōen 野本洞園 in Ogamichō 尾上町, Minami-Tsugaru 南津軽; the 1896 Katō 加藤 residence by Kowata Teiju in Kuroishi 黒石 City; and the early 20th-century Hasegawa 長谷川 residence in Namiokachō 浪岡町, Minami-Tsugaru. Popular with samurai, as well as with wealthy merchants and even farmers, the style eventually spread along the Japan Sea Coast. Related styles of garden design developed in Hida Takayama 飛騨高山 (Gifu Prefecture), Buzen Hikosan 豊前英彦山 (Fukuoka Prefecture), Satsuma Chiran 薩摩知覧 (Kagoshima Prefecture), and on Ishigaki 石垣 Island (Okinawa Prefecture).