The bamboo fence that surrounds the Katsura Rikyū 桂離宮 in Kyoto. The fence it is widely imitated today. At given intervals…

Lit. decorative wash basin. A wash basin placed in a garden for decoration and not used for washing hands. Usually, a wooden…

Lit. decoration stones. A type of stone prized for its beauty and usually placed apart from the more symbolic stone…

An ornamental well. A garden well which has no water and therefore functions or only as a symbolic or decorative item. It is…

The ornamental elements of a garden. The features of a garden which have an ostensible function but are treated in a non-…

Lit. scenic stone. A type of garden stone meant to be appreciated for its beauty. Several usually keiseki stones…

A type of bamboo fence that takes its name from its use first at the temple Kenninji 建仁寺 in Kyoto. It is also considered to…

A votive light offered to a Shinto or Buddhist deity. The lantern which holds the votive light is called a *…

Lit. surplice shape water basins. A stone wash basin *chōzubachi…

A large and powerful branch which dominates a tree. The kikieda featured in garden design and also in paintings…

A term which refers to the large roots of trees, for example in Kano Eitoku's 狩野永徳 (1543-90) painting, Birds and Flowers…

Lit. Kinkakuji 金閣寺 style fence. A type of low, bamboo see-through fence *…

Lit. cut stone bridge. A type of stone bridge *ishibashi 石橋,…

Lit. Kishū stones. A type of blue stone *ao-ishi 青石, quarried in…

Lit. Kōetsuji fence. Also kōetsugaki 光悦垣. A type of open, woven bamboo fence *…

Lit. lying tiger stone. A type of trump stone *yaku-ishi 役石 placed at…

Lit. late style dry landscape. A type of dry garden *karesansui 枯山水…

Also called shinkurama-ishi 新鞍馬石 and kōshūmikage-ishi 甲州御影石. A type of low quality granite quarried in…

Lit. braided fence. A generic name for fences in which the lattice pieces of the fence are braided. In some cases the bamboo…

Lit. arranged well crib. A type of well made of four joined stone blocks. It is also called kakikomi ido 掻込井戸 (…

"Pond (shaped like the) character 九," one type of garden pond. It is described in the garden manual Hihon sakuteiden…

Lit. Kurama stone. A type of granite quarried in the Mt. Kurama 鞍馬 area north of Kyoto. Light brown in color and of fine…

Lit. pulley well. A general term for wells in which the water is drawn by a bucket and rope attached to a pulley. This…

Lit. stone(s) from the nine mountains and eight seas. A single stone or group of stones placed around another stone meant to…

Natural scenery of a particular place; environment. Whenever possible, temples of the Zen 禅 sect during the medieval period…

Lit. "deep black stones." A generic name for black stones found in the Nachi 那智 area of Wakayama prefecture and the Kamo 鴨…

Lit. "thrown bean stones." A poetic name for a seemingly random arrangement of stepping stones *…

Lit. "mixed hedge." One type of *ikegaki 生垣 (living fence) in which two or…

A type of bamboo-ear gate takehogaki 竹穂垣 used for projecting fences *sodegaki…

Lit. "polished stone." A vague term which means any stone which is highly finished or polished, but may also refer to the…

A generic name for granite kakōgan 花崗岩, the term originally meant granite quarried in the Mikage 御影 district in the…

Also written 蓑建仁寺垣. Also called takehogaki 竹穂垣. A variation of the bamboo fence *…

Also sudaregaki 簾垣. A bamboo fence made of various kinds of slender bamboo strips that are set horizontally and…

Lit. "re-used-object water basins." A type of water basin *chōzubachi…

Lit. "water hole." The hollowed-out space on the top face of a water basin *…

Lit. "water boat." A type of large boat-shaped stone used for water basins *mitatemono…

Lit. "returning branch." A tree branch which, naturally or by training, turns abruptly downward. The dramatic nature of the…

A somewhat ambiguous term meaning landscape. Because the curving root of a tree, moku 木, was thought to resemble…

Lit. "gate foundation stones." A large, flat stepping stone *yaku-ishi 役石…

Lit. "gate crowning." A tree planted by a garden gate so that its branches extend over the gate. In some cases the branches…

Woods. The sacred grove of trees planted in front of a shrine by a landscape designer.

Lit. "Corrective on Gardens of the Musō Lineage." A late Edo period treatise on landscape gardening. According to the…

Also written 魚子, 斜子. Lit. "fish-roe."
1　A pattern of small dots thought to resemble fish-roe, and…

Also urokogaki 鱗垣, gonomegaki 互の目垣. A fence made from semi-circular pieces of bamboo or metal. Bamboo…

Lit. "Narihira sleeve fence." A common type of rustic see-though sleeve fence, sukashi sodegaki 透袖垣. The frame,…

Lit. "Nebukawa stone." A type of andesite found near Nebukawa 根府川 Village near Odawara 小田原 in modern Kanagawa Prefecture.…

Lit. "second stone."

1　A stone placed outside a house, particularly a *…

Lit. "peeping bridge." A type of arched, wooden garden bridge that ends abruptly in the water just after beginning its…

Lit. "peeping fence." A type of *sodegaki 袖垣 with one or more…

Also called ajirogaki 網代垣 or ajiro takegaki 網代竹垣. A type of wickerwork fence, especially popular in…

Lit. "big fence." Large, continuous fences in distinction to short screen fences *…

Lit. "a visitor's garden." A garden at an aristocratic dwelling, located at the entrance for royalty, shogun and noblemen.…

Lit. "spiral well with shade tree." A tree planted near a spiral well *oriido 下り井戸 so that it…

Lit. "descending well." A deep well. It is also called spiral well rasei 螺井, or snail well maimai ido…

Lit. "pushing frame." The horizontal bars to which the vertical slats *tateko…

Also called yarai 矢来, yaraigaki 矢来垣, chōsengaki 朝鮮垣, and chōsen yarai 朝鮮矢来…

Lit. "carp stone." A stone placed at the base of a waterfall to symbolize a carp swimming up the waterfall. Good examples…

A fence made of bamboo stakes that alternate with unpeeled wooden stakes. The bamboo and unpeeled stakes have the same…

Lit. "forest and stream."
The ancient word for garden. Rinsen first appeared in the 720 Nihon shoki…

A type of bamboo fence used at Ryōanji 龍安寺, a Zen temple in Kyoto. It is characterized by thick split bamboo that cross…

Also ryōmegaki 両目垣. An interlocking bamboo fence. Bamboo, about 3 cm in diameter, are cut in half vertically and…

A summer house, arbor or pavilion that provided a cool resting place in a garden.

Lit. "dragon pond style." A type of garden featuring a sharply curving pond reminiscent of a dragon's serpentine body. Good…

Lit. "dragon's gate cascade." One type of cascade *baku 瀑 found in Japanese…

Lit. "flowing water appreciation style garden."
A general term used to designate any garden focused around a stream.…

Lit. "flowing water style of pond and stream."
A type of water feature in a garden that includes a curving water course.…

Lit. "Treatise on Garden Making." The oldest and most revered Japanese text on garden design, it was probably…

Lit. "three-stage waterfall." One common type of garden waterfall. Through the arrangement of earth and rocks, the waterfall…

Lit. "Buddhist triad stone arrangement." The grouping of one large stone with two smaller flanking stones that lean toward…

Lit. "bamboo grass fence." A living fence or hedge made of low-growing, bamboo grass called kumazasa 熊笹, and…

Lit. "marsh crossing." A path made of stepping stones *tobi-ishi 飛石 placed in…

Limestone. A type of rock rarely used in gardens because of its soft and transient nature, although it was employed as a…

Lit. "glittering green stone." A type of stone similar to granite but containing black granules. Often containing small…

Lit. "spring water." Originally the term referred to spring water running through a garden. In Kyoto, a number of…

Lit. "borrowed scenery." The method of incorporating a distant vista into the composition of a garden. A river, the ocean,…

Also read shibakaki. A very old type of brushwood fencing, originally called fushigaki 布斯垣. Many…

Lit. "Sima Yungong type." One style of natural stone water basin *…

Lit. "brushwood mountain." A type of rustic water basin *chōzubachi…

Also called shichigosan ishigumi 七五三石組 Lit. "seven-five-three-style garden." The arrangement of 15 stones or pruned…

Lit. "shinden-style garden." The quintessential Heian period garden that was built in the central courtyard of…

Lit. "drizzle fence." A type of fence in which bunches of bamboo and bush clover are secured by the top bar of a fence so as…

Lit. "Buddhas of the four directions water basin." A type of water basin made from reused objects *…

Lit. "arrangement of branch and leg stones." One way to arrange the five types of trump stones known as *…

A garden fence with penetrating ties *nuki 貫 that run horizontally from one…

A grouping of three stones, carefully balanced to resemble the character shina 品. The stone arrangement is…

Lit. "tree of immortals." A tree associated with Mt. Penglai *Hōraisan 蓬莱山,…

Lit. "shirakawa stone." A type of granite quarried from the Shirakawa 白川 area north of Kyoto. Soft and easily…

Lit. "four guardian kings stones." Four stones placed in each corner of a garden. The stones serve the same apotropaic…

Lit. "four guardian king trees." A poetic title referring to the maiden-hair or gingko ichō 銀杏, camphor …

Lit. "natural stone water basins." A generic name for a water basin *chōzubachi…

Lit. "natural stone bridge." A type of stone bridge *ishibashi 石橋 made from…

The garden which faces or surrounds the *shoin 書院. No special features are used in shoin…

Also read seijōseki, called nozoki-ishi 覗石 or kiyome-ishi きよめ石. Lit. "pure stone."

…

Lit. "plants." The various plants, trees, bushes, and flowers placed in a garden. The term also is used to refer to gardens…

Meaning genuine tree. The term was coined in the middle Edo period to refer to the dominant or master tree in a garden.…

Originally, a waterfall in nature. With the rise of dry waterfalls *karetaki…

Lit. "master tree." The tree planted on the top, front of a garden hill *tsukiyama…

Lit. "guardian tree." One name given to the main tree planted in the middle of a flat garden hiraniwa 平庭. The term…

Lit. "shrunken scenery." The imitation of a famous scenic spot meisho 名所 in a garden through the creation of a…

Lit. "Mt. Sumeru type stone arrangement." A grouping of stones which expresses Mt. Sumeru *Shumisen…