rinsen 林泉

Lit. "forest and stream."
The ancient word for garden. Rinsen first appeared in the 720 Nihon shoki 日本書紀 where it was used to mean "field." However, a poem by Dazai no Daini 太宰大弐 in the Kaifūsō 懐風藻 of 751 used the word to mean garden. By the Heian period, rinsen was commonly used to indicate a garden. For instance, in *shinden-zukuri teien 寝殿造庭園, the pond garden in the central courtyard was called rinsen or *enchi 園池. In the Edo period the word was still used, as seen in the title of the famous Miyako rinsen meishō zue 都林泉名勝図会 (Illustrations of Gardens and Famous Places of Kyoto) of 1799.