Composition of scenery in Japanese pre-modern gardens and the three distances of Guo Xi

Abstract

Landscape painters and garden makers in the ancient Far East were not acquainted with a visual perspective constructed from one vanishing point on the horizon as valued in the West ever since the European Renaissance. Their ideas on composing the scenic relied on a more dynamic approach. Two Chinese landscape painting theories provide detailed information on perspective composition. Guo Xi's eleventh-century "The Lofty Message of Woods and Streams" was turned into a practical guide for the painter with the printed "Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy" of the late seventeenth century.
This paper explains the peculiar spatial illusion of the Japanese pre-modern garden, in particular the smaller gardens that were composed to be viewed from one side. Departing from a research of Guo Xi's words on a three-fold perspective of distance, the building up of scenery in landscape is explained.
Taste in landscape design was a private avocation allowing for spatial construction that could be grasped by one man sitting in one place — the literate man contemplating the composition of his garden at ease. Two pre-modern gardens with an extremely elaborate composition of depth in perspective are introduced: the small sixteenth-century rock garden at Daisen-in, and a larger seventeenth-century garden without rocks at Jikō-in.

Full text

Wybe Kuitert
Composition of scenery in Japanese pre-modern gardens and the three distances of Guo Xi
Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes,
(2013) 33:1, 1-15
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2012.753189

Composition of scenery in Japanese pre-modern gardens
and the three distances of Guo Xi
wybe kuitert
Introduction
Landscape painters in the ancient Far East and the garden makers of former times
in Japan were not acquainted with a visual perspective constructed from one
vanishing point on the horizon as valued in the West ever since the European
Renaissance. Their ideas on composing the scenic relied on a more dynamic
approach. The lack of a central perspective converging on the horizon is basic to
understand traditional East Asian landscape composition. Two Chinese land-
scape painting theories provide detailed information on perspective composi-
tion. Guo Xi’s eleventh-century The Lofty Message of Woods and Streams was
turned into a practical guide for the painter with the printed Manual of the
Mustard Seed Academy of the late seventeenth century. Both were compilations
of centuries of existing practice.
This paper intends to explain the peculiar spatial illusion of the Japanese pre-
modern garden, in particular the smaller gardens that were composed to be
viewed from one side. Departing from a research of Guo Xi’s words on a three-
fold perspective of distance, the building up of scenery in landscape is explained.
Part of the composition strategy is the awareness of the maker that the viewer
will appreciate the landscape by sitting in front of it.
In Japan’s feudal organization of pre-modern society, knowledge on gardens
and the taste for it were not or hardly popularized. Taste in landscape design was
still a private avocation allowing for spatial construction that could be grasped by
one man sitting in one place — the literate man contemplating the composition
of his garden at ease. Two pre-modern gardens with an extremely elaborate
composition of depth in perspective are introduced: the small sixteenth-century
rock garden at Daisen-in, and a larger seventeenth-century garden without
rocks at Jiko-in. Generally speaking the historicity of Japanese gardens is a tricky
field, as trees die, and shapes may change by simple yearly management. But
these two examples are backed up sufficiently by records to make for reliable
cases to investigate composition strategies in garden design. Other gardens with
similar, but less spectacular composition techniques are introduced at the end.
1. Composition of space and perspective in pre-modern Chinese
landscape painting: Guo Xi
Landscape painters of the Song dynasties (960–1279) were concerned with the
person in front of the painting. Their idea was to invite the viewer as a visitor to
enter in the mind the painted scenery to walk around in it. To entice him,
attaining depth of perspective on the flat surface of a painting was most impor-
tant. Such realism was attained through diminishing size and indistinctness of the
objects further away adding other techniques. Basically a linear perspective with
no fixed vanishing point and a distance perspective inherent to the human eye
was combined with effects that relate to atmospheric circumstances. Trees
further away were drawn smaller, less detailed, and vaguer, diluting the water-
based pigments of ink. Distant mountains appear in Song landscape painting as
misty; the lower part is not painted, as if it was invisible, covered in haze. The
lack of one central point of convergence gives a lot of freedom in composing
separate scenes that, as it were, can be painted all over the surface of the painting.
issn 1460-1176 #2013 taylor & francis vol. 33, no. 1 1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2012.753189

Based on this existing practice Guo Xi (c. 1020–1090) formulated his theory on
the composition of perspective in more detail. In his day the Northern Sung
dynasty was in full swing and landscape painting was a major artistic challenge,
often taking towering mountains and mighty rocks as subjects. Guo Xi’s land-
scape painting treatise titled Lin-quan gao-zhi ji was published by his son in the
early twelfth century.
1
Translated as The Lofty Message of Woods and Streams, the
title conveys the contents; the lofty message is the conclusive grasp in under-
standing landscape painting theoretically. The treatise starts with rhetoric on the
value of landscape and landscape painting appreciation; it continues with edu-
cating the landscape painter on the right attitude, and ways of appreciating
landscape. The latter half is on painting technique and formal composition,
introducing practical advice, such as on atmospheric and linear distance. To
compose depth of field a most interesting paragraph is on three different
approaches to attain perspective when painting mountain scenery. The state-
ment became most influential in following centuries, and is given here in my
translation based on two sources:
2
Mountains have three distances. From the foot of the mountain, looking up to the
top, is called high distance. In front of the mountain, peeking into the back, we
speak of deep distance. From a mountain foreground looking towards mountains far
away, we speak of level distance. The look (se,shai, look, key, mode, appearance) of
the high distance is bright and clear. The look of the deep distance is heavy and
gloomy. The look of the level distance: it is bright and it is gloomy. The vigor (shi)
of high distance is in protrusion to lofty tops. The idea (yi, idea, intention) of the
deep distance is attained by piling up layers. The idea of the level distance is
flushing and fusing (rinse and blend), added with far off (boundless) and faint
(indistinct).
About human figures and the three distances: in the high distance these are clear
and distinct; in the deep distance thin and fragmented; in the level distance calm
and diluted. Clear and distinct figures shouldn’t be too short. Thin and fragmented
figures not too long. Calm and diluted not too big. These are the three distances.
These words stem directly from the practice of the painter, as can be read from
the use of words like look, vigor, or idea, all intended to give a twist to the
artistic intention of the artist at work. Flushing and fusing can be understood as
the vague expression of scenery achieved by washing ink in more or less water-
diluted shades of color. The three distances in The Lofty Message have a straight
and practical meaning. The composition technique with distances is better
understood through Guo Xi’s own painting, like the clearly signed and dated figure 1. Guo Xi’s Early Spring. National Palace Museum, Taipei (scroll, ink on silk).
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Early Spring of 1072 kept in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which is
analyzed below.
3
Early Spring shows how distances were melted into one composition. Because its
author Guo Xi was the champion of the technique the result is contrived,
spectacular, and impressive. The paintings size — 158 ·108 cm — forces the
viewer to stand at various distances from the painting. The whole can only be
grasped when standing meters away from it, whereas standing closer many details
become clear, at the same time though losing the overall sight (figure 1). The only
way to view it is to let the eye travel all over the surface of the painting, and inspect
it section by section. In spite of many speculative words that have been spent on
this painting, we can stay true to Guo Xi’s words and perfectly understand how
the practical problem of composition was solved.
4
We are invited to enter the
painting by way of the foreground with gnarled pine trees standing on the rocks in
the middle at the lower edge of his painting. We can see a deep distance to the right
edge of the painting in the lower half: our eye pokes into its depth, which is
indicated by layering (figure 2).
The waterfall is rendered effectively to evoke depth through its layering:
bright foaming water is shown in five falls, on top and beside each other, large
and small, suggesting foreground and background. A climax of this deep
distance is the group of temple buildings and a small grass-thatched hut above
the cascades. The human environment is deserted though; no human figures can
be seen.
At the left edge, above the middle, a valley is shown in soft tones (figure 3).
Here we also find an inscription with the title of the painting, its author and
date. To enter the valley with the eye, another foreground is painted below it
as a set of bulging rocks with pines indicated vaguer than the pines to the right
of it, the ones that are in the middle of the painting. Water falls down and tiny
human figures can be seen; in itself this section is a small deep distance, identified
as such through its layering of water falling in two falls, and its human figures
indicated thin and fragmented. The valley painted above it, takes this deep
distance as a foreground from which we overlook the valley with its soft tones,
fusing and blending atmospheric light with a vague indication of mountains in
the far. It is effectively a clear level distance. To the right of it the high distance
starts again.
Once more returning to the lower edge of the painting one may judge the
gnarled pines on the rocks as another, but short deep distance that changes with
two vertical pines in the middle to a high distance of towering mountains, bright figure 2. Guo Xi’s Early Spring. National Palace Museum, Taipei (detail).
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
3

and clear (figure 4). It is the start of the grand high distance that forms the central
and vertical axis towering up to the upper end of the painting.
Once more taking a closer look at the whole lower end of the painting, we see
human beings, on a promontory to the left, and on the right on a levee that
crosses the water. In combination with the rocks and gnarled pines, we now see
the whole foreground rather as a level distance (figure 5). The humans are calm
and diluted, not too big, as Guo Xi gives for the level distance.
In conclusion one may say that each distance functions as a small plane with a
scene that stands for itself and can be inspected in isolation from the others.
High, level, or deep are relative nominators that work in relation to each other
and may change character depending on their position in the whole scheme.
Deep may become level when seen at another scale, when stepping back a few
steps when viewing the painting. Although in detail many smaller sections of the
painting have their own distance, the larger structure of the picture is limited to
three distances only: a high distance as the middle axis of the painting, a level
distance to the left, and a deep distance to the right of it. This becomes clear
when we step back and overlook the picture as a whole (see figure 1). If more
distances were to be added, consistency of composition would be lost. Depth in
perspective is generated by painting several separated scenes, each imagined to
be at a different distance from the standpoint of the onlooker. In distant scenes
the trees and mountains are drawn smaller and less detailed than the scenes more
close by. Some scenes are separated by mist or by water in the form of a broad
river or a lake, expressed in white. But in the end all scenes are painted besides,
or on top of one another. In compositions employing the deep and the high
distance schemes, painting the planes on top of one another was most effective
in evoking an effect of depth. The viewer had to bend his neck backwards to
look up. Consequently, as for the format of the painting, quite some height was
needed. Verticality is therefore a characteristic feature of Chinese landscape
painting in the Northern Song fashion.
2. The three distances and composition of space and perspective
in the Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy
A later, more explanatory interpretation of the three distances is found in the
illustrated painters’ Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy (Jieziyuan huazhuan).
5
In
the eighteenth year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign, 1679, it came out in three volumes
(ji) and has hundreds of black and white woodblock illustrations. Of this original
figure 3. Guo Xi’s Early Spring. National Palace Museum, Taipei (detail).
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edition only rare copies exist.
6
One section elaborates upon the distances of Guo Xi
with three schematic illustrations. We see three differing views of an imaginary
landscape as sketchy, schematic illustrations (figures 6, 7 and 8). This time the
distances lack the dynamism of Early Spring, we view them as if placed in a viewing
box. Would Guo Xi have agreed with this interpretation of his words?
First of all what strikes us is that his text is quoted in the upper half of the first
illustration, omitting though, apart from the head of the text, the character for
‘mountain’ in each sentence that explains the distance. ‘From below the moun-
tain, looking up to the top, is called high distance’ in Guo Xi’s words becomes
‘From below, looking up to the top, is called high distance’. Suddenly we are not
talking any longer about being inside mountain scenery, but about being in the
atelier of the painter. Guo Xi’s portent was about this high-angled view, looking
upon, or overlooking the mountains from a high view point — being on a
mountain, as if floating in the air. It is fundamental to the classic Chinese view
on mountains, and is perceived in one of the Japanese gardens treated below too.
Without the word mountain, the way Guo Xi uses distance becomes more
diffuse too. Distance relates in his words directly to the distance perceived
between the front of the painting and its deepest field, and must be understood
as a straight synonym for perspective in the way we use the word at present.
7
However that may be, the problem-solving illustrations in The Manual make us,
modern humans, understand better how an academic play of perspective could
be played as it is much easier to get the practical portent of Guo Xi’s words on
figure 4. Guo Xi’s Early Spring. National Palace Museum, Taipei (detail).
figure 5. Guo Xi’s Early Spring. National Palace Museum, Taipei (detail).
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
5

figure 6. The high distance of Guo Xi in the Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy
(Jieziyuan huazhuan), late seventeenth century.
figure 7. The deep distance of Guo Xi in the Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy
(Jieziyuan huazhuan), late seventeenth century.
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composition technique. It is like getting the building blocks in the hand, with
which every amateur can become a Guo Xi.
The high distance is a composition scheme in which a towering mountainous
landscape is seen as looking from below upwards. It is a frontal picture of an
almost inaccessible peak landscape, there is no clear foreground. The appended
wordings are the first sentences of Guo Xi’s paragraph on the three distances —
without ‘mountain’ (figure 6).
The scheme that illustrates deep distance shows a ravine-like landscape scene
and we can look into its depth (figure 7). This time though, there is a foreground
in form of a small path suggested in the lower left corner with a few lines. It
seems to invite us to enter the picture, and from this foreground in the lower
parts our eye travels up to poke into a deeper, further distance, somewhere in the
upper half of the picture. The idea of ‘gloomy’ and ‘heavy’ is attained by
bringing in vapors of mist from both sides, which gives an effect of depth,
different from the bright, protruding peak of the previous picture. Layering is
done, in this case, not with waterfalls but with the wisps of mist.
The third scheme is the level distance. The perceiver seems to be looking at a
distant scenery from a rather high standpoint, the landscape of hills and wide
water stretches broadly away from a near to a far distance. The direction of view
is rather level and the distance between us and the whole scenery is further than
in the previous two schemes (figure 8). Indeed, panoramas of outstretched
landscapes with lakes or seas usually employ this level distance.
With The Manual another way to grasp the idea is introduced. One may
imagine that the picture hangs as a slab with hinges from the lower edge of the
plane of vision, i.e. the frame of the painting. High, deep, and level distance are
then three degrees to which the slab can be lowered, receding more and more to
the back while increasing the distance of the scenery towards you, the viewer.
Each scheme does not intend to propose a full landscape painting; rather each in
itself is an elementary, theoretical component. All three can be employed as
building blocks that can be changed in expression and combination with others
to construct a full-flown landscape painting.
3. Landscape painting and composition techniques in the
Japanese garden tradition
Medieval gardens in Japan received a strong influence from continental China
and its approach to landscape painting. Landscape paintings were imported and
figure 8. The level distance of Guo Xi in the Manual of the Mustard Seed Academy
(Jieziyuan huazhuan), late seventeenth century.
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
7

some early fourteenth-century gardens were probably made under Chinese
supervision, perhaps even using Chinese laborers. Most conspicuous are rocks
set in arrangements to represent a miniature mountain gorge with waterfall,
similar to landscape scenes in Chinese landscape paintings that came in at the
same time. The waterfall compositions at Tenryu-ji and Kinkaku-ji must have
been made by Chinese. The unusual skill in Chinese-style landscape composi-
tion could not have been attained yet by any Japanese. There was a tradition to
aesthetically enforce a waterfall with rocks, as seen in earlier gardens, but never
in vertical compositions such as in these two cases.
8
An early Japanese garden-
making manual, from the 1460s, features six compositional sketches that show
how a garden design can be organized as scenery of decorative materials.
9
In
essence all six show the same idea: rocks and trees are set along wavy lines, that
read as shores of a lake or river, with water, or without as in the typical dry
landscape garden. The six sketches can be interpreted in terms of Chinese
landscape painting composition theories. But one does not find a straight copy-
ing of ideas, neither a straight connection to the text of Guo Xi. Parallel with
Chinese landscape painting, the scenery in these sketches is vertical: rocks and
trees are set above each other, the shore lines are drawn vertical (figure 9). The
manual was made by gardening-priests of lower ranks not likely to have under-
stood fully the intellectual world of the Chinese literati man.
From the late seventeenth century garden picture books come up with other
abbreviated compositional schemes that lean on Chinese landscape painting.
Printed and mass produced from the early eighteenth century these picture
books have influenced Japan’s garden art enormously since then.
10
Some older,
pre-modern gardens, however, show the influence of Song landscape painting
theory clearly.
The three distances of landscape painting could be expressed in a garden as
can be seen at Daisen-in. This sub-temple within the Daitoku-ji compound in
Kyoto was founded in the early sixteenth century.
The rock composition that we want to discuss here is the most prominent part
of the landscaping of the temple, in the north-east corner of the compound. This
setting of rocks was installed as garden decoration after moving it from another
location somewhere between 1574 and 1582. The skill with which the compo-
sition is matched to the buildings suggests that the garden was moved by true
professionals.
11
That it was moved as a whole is a pointer to its use and
appreciation. Very much like a landscape painting proper that was brought
figure 9. Sansui-narabini-yakeizu, a hand-written scroll on garden design and gardening
technique has sketches that show rocks and trees set in scenic compositions that vaguely remind the
observer of Chinese Song landscape painting. Ninna-ji, Kyoto, 1460. Taken from Zoen, Sansui
narabini yakeizu facsimile of scroll: Maeda ke sonkeikaku bunkozohon (Tokyo: Ikotoku
Zaidan, 1930).
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along as a scroll, unrolled, and suspended from the wall, this fantasy landscape
outdoors or so called kasan, was also brought along to show a scenic composition
that excited the owner and his guests. A later paper model of the garden confirms
the continued interest of the literati men (figure 10). Waterfall scenery is created
with rocks and some clipped shrubbery that shades the upper parts, all packed
within a narrow corner (figure 11).
Actual water is not present here and is called up in the mind, first of all by
white gravel raked in patterns representative of waves. There are small rocks in
the very foreground, followed by a low stone bridge. Directly behind these, two
massive stones rise up to two or three meters high. Close to the corner of the
wooden veranda, they make for a high distance as it is the massive rocks them-
selves that represent a steep mountainside (figure 12). The rocks stand bright in
the light, facing the veranda. The bigger of the two is crystalline schist called
Ao-ishi (blue stone) from Iyo in Shikoku. This showy type of stone has char-
acteristic, wavy fissures in various shades of white, blue, green and black. The
rugged texture in this case suggests a cliff landscape of peaks, waterfalls in white
foam, or even misty clouds.
Such rocks with a gaudy texture suggestive of landscape were, and are still, highly
prized. On the right side of the two standing rocks a receding deep distance is
suggested; it is a waterfall that is seen cascading down in a few steps. The white
foaming water comes down as vertical stripes of white seen in the rocky face of
stones. The setting is in layers. Above this deep distance, plants shade the rocks; also
the far end is obscure; as if it is not clear where this imaginary water is coming from.
The whole is arranged to be viewed from the reading room adjoining the
garden to the west. An extra is the small inspection bridge (figure 14) with roof
that sits parallel to the little stone bridge (see also figures 10, 11 and 13).
figure 10. The rock garden at Daisen-in has been famous throughout history. A study model
of the garden shows a wall with tiny inspection bridge as a structure in folded paper. Previously in the
collection of Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758–1829). Taken from Hida Norio, Nihon teien to fukei
(Kyoto: Gakugei Shuppansha, 1999).
figure 11. The garden at Daisen-in illustrated in an eighteenth-century garden book. The
inspection bridge (see figure 10) is shown in abbreviation as one thin black line only. The level
distance is in the lower right hand corner of this figure. The captions explain the composition as
‘arranged rigidly according to the rule of form’, and gives some other less relevant comments. Taken
from Kitamura Enkin, Fujii Shigeyoshi, Tsukiyama niwa tsukuri den (Kyoto: Ryushiken
Ogawa Tazaemon, 1735, K20).
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
9

It makes it possible to come a little closer to the mini-mountains, spectacular
on a rainy day when colors of the rocks are coming out at best. The roof is
essential for this. A typical technical trick in this respect should not be left
unnoticed. A rather big rock with a flattened top, shining with about the same
brightness as the polished veranda, is set exactly at the same height aligned with
the veranda edge (see figures 11 and 14).
This stone visually connects the garden scene of rocks to the architecture of
the buildings. Seen from the reading room it forms the foremost part of the
foreground of the actual garden scene. It is similar to a typical foreground found
figure 12. To the right of the big standing rocks a waterfall is suggested by rocks with white
vertical stripes. In the foreground a bridge spans the mouth of the gorge, water is suggested with white
gravel. The bridge leads nowhere and is too small to be of any practical use. Photo by author, 28
September 1982. Since then the camellia to the right side of the photo has withered away.
figure 13. Walking over the inspection bridge, is like entering the mini-landscape physically.
From the farthest end the deep distance is partly concealed. Sketch by author 8 September 1982.
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in the lowest section of a Song landscape painting. To the right side of the
scenery we see a stone with a tip bending upwards. It suggests a ship setting out
into the sea, suggesting an expanse of water. Actually it points to the level distance
in the sand landscape, all in line with the standards for representing landscape
scenery. It is not bright, neither shaded, actually not very well-defined. The
three distances, including their look, are consistently built up as scenery with
planes evoking perspective of depth all fully in line with Chinese composition
schemes of landscape painting.
The compositional schemes can also be discovered in other historic gardens.
One garden that shows them on a grand scale, and has a reliable history as well is
found at Jiko-in in Nara Prefecture. Jiko-in is a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect,
and as Daisen-in, it is of the Daitoku-ji branch. However the section that has the
garden was built as a tasteful private residence by Katagiri Sekishu (1605–1673).
The temple was set up north of it. Sekishu was a daimyo, well-salaried after the
death of his father in 1627, and served as a magistrate on matters of building and
construction at the Chion-in temple in Kyoto from 1633. He was well at home
in matters of etiquette and aesthetics and associated with cultural leaders of the
time.
12
The retreat that he developed from 1663 is set on a small natural hill close
to a river plain; its architecture looks much like a farmhouse, though on a large
scale and built with exquisite materials. All was intricately designed to immerse
the visitor with an outdoor experience and saturate the mind with real land-
scape; it has not even one rock set up. Sekishu’s personal notes Wabi no bun
inform about the aesthetics fundamental to this position.
13
True taste (suki) for
Sekishu is found not in expensive utensils used in preparing and drinking a cup
of tea as in elaborate tea ceremonies, but it is in a piece of charcoal with which
the water is boiled, it is in a fence at a farmers house with mud walls, or in the
early hours of a morning with fresh snow. No rocks for him, but just the
countryside landscape. Another clue is that he revived the continental
Tamagawa-ryu. It is the name for a type of tea party developed in China by
Lutong (795–835), nicknamed Yuchuan, which is pronounced Tamagawa in
Japanese. The Tamagawa style (Tamagawa-ryu) relates to an uninhibited appre-
ciation of free and open landscape, where tea utensils are brought outdoors and
just set on a low table as in a picnic.
14
Sekishu developed his retreat on purpose
to give visiting friends a strong and liberating experience of such countryside
scenery. To this end, the choice of the site and the way existing topography is
figure 14. Daisen-in: interior and exterior are matched to form one space to appreciate the
landscape of the garden as a three-dimensional painting. The wooden rails in the floor indicate the
place where paper screens — with landscape paintings — can be installed. The narrow inspection
bridge has a window ledge to sit on for viewing the level distance that begins at the right lower corner
of this photo where the treasure ship stone can be seen. Taken from Sekiguchi Kin’ya, Gozan to
Zen’in, Shinhen meiho Nihon no bijutsu (Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1991). Usually the sliding
screens are closed when visiting the temple.
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
11

used, is much in line with Chinese landscape theory as it can be read from
Yuanye.
15
One of Sekishu’s visitors has left a set of Chinese style poems on the
garden and one of these tells about the welcome guests that can be seen passing
the bridge.
16
This bridge spans the small river below the hill outside the garden,
but is visible from it. Indeed the garden includes a spectacular view over the
neighboring fields of Yamato with a far range of hills forming the horizon.
Unfortunately, the prospect is now no longer a sea of rice fields, but it is rather
filled with residential development. It means that visually the valley floor has
become much higher than before. It all induced a will to include camouflaging
plantation, which again makes the experience of seeing a vast valley narrower. In
spite of this, nevertheless, the view on the valley still functions in the garden
successfully as a level distance. Depending on the weather and the atmosphere the
look of the Yamato plain is anything between bright and misty or dim. The
composition gives this high-angled view, perched upon the edge of a hill
overlooking the valley — as if floating in the air. Trees and shrubs on the left
and right outline the view on both sides and a clipped hedge frames the view as a
lower horizontal edge (figure 15).
The hedge is a literary metaphor for the landscape of the plain that was
bordered with chains of hills that were customary seen as ‘green hedges’ in
ancient literary works such as Kojiki or Nihonshoki.
17
Like the flat stone in
Daisen-in, this hedge links the view to the veranda and the building in which
the visitor is sitting (figure 15).
Turning our eyes to the right we see a landscape of clipped azaleas. Our eyes
can poke deep into it whence it functions as a deep distance. To increase the depth
of field clipped azaleas are set in layers, and the line of sight disappears in an edge
of trees that is not clearly defined (figure 16). More to the right the clipped
shrubs cover an artificial garden hill and pose a steeper view (figures 17 and 18).
A small kiosk stands on the top of this mound; it has a grand name Hall of
Kannon, Kannondo, usually affixed to much and much larger temple structures.
Hence the mound becomes a piece of mock landscape; it mimics a steep
mountain with a temple as in Chinese landscape paintings. The mound is
figure 15. The wide view over the plain is visually connected with the hedge to the veranda:
the view functions as a level distance. Jiko-in. Photo by author, 29 October 2010.
figure 16. The deep distance is in the middle of this photo. The eye pokes deep into its layers.
To the right it turns to a high distance, seen in figures 17 and 18. Jiko-in. Photo by author, 24
October 2008.
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artificial: soil that came free when digging the entrance path to the retreat was
piled up here. At the rightmost edge of our field of vision this mound with
clipped shrubs and its Hall of Kannon functions as a high distance (figure 18).
Again, like at in Daisen-in, the high distance comes most close to the veranda,
to give most effect. The garden at Jiko-in exemplifies even better how this taste
for distances in composition was very much the taste of the literati man. With his
collection of books, a few paintings, and with his own amateur efforts to achieve
some excellence in ink painting, perhaps trying a hand at its most difficult form:
the landscape, a garden like this could confirm the world, prove the realities on
paper to be true in the real world as well.
Finally, with this analysis one may imagine how the artists,the garden designers
themselves, in these days solved their design problem when being confronted
with sites and design ambitions as discussed here. The formative process of
creating garden scenery must have started with distributing the distances such as
suggested by Guo Xi on the site. High, deep, and level were decided and
constructed with hard materials: earth work, walls, and most importantly by
orienting the plan for the building to the scenery, or vice versa. In the case of
Jiko-in it must have meant that the building was set on site after the decisions on
the landscape scenery were made. All in order to get most effect when sitting in
the main room. Secondly it was, as in Daisen-in, enhanced by rocks and plants, or,
as in Jiko-in with more earth work and planting.
figure 17. The deep distance is covered by a small pine tree in the foreground, forcing observers
to look at the mass of clipped shrubs (okarikomi) that function as the start of a high distance. Jiko-in.
Photo by author, 24 October 2008.
figure 18. On top of the man-made garden hill covered with clipped shrubs, stands a small
shrine Kannondo. Part of the roof is seen here above, and behind the tiled roof of the garden gate.
Jiko-in. Photo by author, 24 October 2008.
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
13

4. Other pre-modern gardens
The two examples given here, Jiko-in and Daisen-in, both belong to the
Daitoku-ji monastery. Present head priests are even related by family blood-
lines. This poses a question whether there is some specificity of these two. Even
more so, when one realizes that Hoshun-in in Daitoku-ji, indeed has a similar
composition strategy, and again within the Daitoku-ji monastic hierarchy relates
historically to Jiko-in. Research remains to be done on the question of landscape
paintings owned by, or seen by a garden owner, and probably designer like Sekishu.
However, some pre-modern gardens not relating to Daitoku-ji, like Taizo-in in
Myoshin-ji, Kyoto, designed by painter Kano Motonobu (1476–1559) can indeed
be analyzed with Guo Xi’s distances, but less restrained and therefore less convin-
cing. In this case it might be due to a generally speaking weaker artistic effort: stones
are smaller, less expensive, and there is no wall as background to set the composition
apart from its surroundings. Shisendo, to name a last example, also has a peculiar use
of distances, including a far view over the city of Kyoto, not so clear any longer
because of dense trees covering it. In this case the owner and designer was again a
man well versed in Chinese letters, without much doubt well informed on con-
tinental composition theory too. Numerous gardens outside the Kyoto-Nara region
wait to be tested with an analysis on the three distances of Guo Xi.
Department of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Environmental Studies,
Seoul National University,
South Korea
notes
1. Guo Xi’s Lin-quan gao-zhi ji: full text in Chinese:
林泉高致集（全文）http://www.wretch.cc/blog/
koseaan/13366260 柯詩安ko.sean National Taiwan
University, Retrieved January 2012. A translation in
Dutch with comment is: Jan Poortenaar, Het
Chineesche landschap: een verhandeling uit de elfde eeuw
door Kwo Sji. Met een beschouwing over den Soeng-tijd
door L. Cranmer-Byng. Ingeleid en uit de overzetting van
Dr. Shio Sakanishi vertaald door Jan Poortenaar
(Antwerpen: De Sikkel, c. 1936). Short bibliography
(p. 337) on this text in Stanley Murashige, ‘Rhythm,
Order, Change, and Nature in Guo Xi’s Early
Spring’, Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies,
43, 1995, pp. 337–362.
2. Translated from the Chinese text edition of the
National Taiwan University checking with
Poortenaar (c. 1936), pp. 84–85.
3. The painting reproduced here from: Guoli Gugong
Bowuyuan Bianji Weiyuanhui (ed.) Gugong zanghua
daxi (A Panorama of Paintings in the Collection of the
National Palace Museum), Vol. 1 (Taipei: Guoli
Gugong Bowuyuan, 1993). This source gives my figure
1 and figure 2 in reproduction. Figures 3, 4 and 5 of this
paper are my cropping.
4. A supposed S curve and many other things are assigned
to Guo Xi’s Early Spring in Murashige (1995),
pp. 337–362. Actually Guo Xi’s text is very clear, and
such speculative interpretations do not seem to offer
much to heighten appreciation of the painting.
5. Jieziyuan huazhuan: reprint with comment in
Japanese: Uehara Keiji (ed.) Kaisetsu kaishien juseki
gafu (Tokyo: Kashima Shoten, 1971) and Kaisetsu
kaishien fukei gafu (Tokyo: Kashima Shoten, 1973).
Figures for this paper taken from a Korean edition:
Gaejawon hwajeon (Jieziyuan huazhuan) (Seoul:
Woonlim Pilbang, 1987). A translation in French
is: KIAI-TSEU-YUAN HOUA TCHOUAN
[Jieziyuan huazhuan], Les Enseignements de la Peinture du
Jardin grand comme un Grain de Moutarde. Encyclopédie de la
peinture chinoise. Traduction et commentaires par
Raphae
¨l Petrucci. (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1910; facs. Paris:
Librairie You-Feng, 2000). Édition en ligne Universitédu
Québec àChicoutimi.
6. See Kohara Hironobu, Chugoku garon no kenkyu
(Tokyo: ChuoKoron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2006), pp.
339–400, for an extensive bibliography. Numerous
editions and copy-editions exist all over eastern Asia,
where it continues to inspire lovers of landscape
painting. Later editions typically have volumes
added to the three original ones.
7. See Kohara (2006), p. 363.
8. See Wybe Kuitert, Themes in the History of Japanese
Garden Art (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press,
2002), pp. 77–83.
9. Kuitert (2002), pp. 118–123. A transcription of this
handwritten manual Sansui narabini yakeizu (see note
below) including comparative research on related
copies is: Egami Yasushi, ‘Doji kudensho tsuki sansui
narabini yakeizu – kokan jo’, Bijutsu kenkyu, 247, 1966,
pp. 32–41, and ‘Doji kudensho tsuki sansui narabini
yakeizu – kokan ge’, Bijutsu kenkyu, 250, 1967, pp. 22–40.
10. Wybe Kuitert, Gardens and Landscapes in Japan –
1650–1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, forthcoming, 2013), Chapter 2. Figure 11 is
taken from one of these picture books.
11. Kuitert (2002), pp. 95–98.
12. Ozeki Nanzan (ed.), Jiko-in (Nara: Jiko-in, 1987; re-
ed. 1994), pp. 1–3; and Kuitert (2002), pp. 177–178.
13. Ozeki (re-ed. 1994), pp. 5–9.
14. Kuitert, Gardens and Landscapes in Japan – 1650–1950
(forthcoming, 2013) at the discussion on Akisato
Ritoken’s Tamagawa style garden.
studies in the history of gardens and designed landscapes: kuitert
14

15. Wybe Kuitert, ‘Jiejing Zhongguo ‘‘yuanye’’ (1634)
lilunyu 17 shiji riben zaoyuan yishu shijian’
(Borrowed scenery: theory in Yuanye 1634 and
practice in seventeenth-century Japanese garden
art), Zhongguo Yuanlin, V.24/150, 2008, pp. 01–06.
Yuanyepraisessuchthingsasaprospectofavalley
from a high terrace, and reworking topography by
earth works to improve the effect of the view.
16. The visitor was Horin Shosho (1593–1668) leaving
eight poems behind at his stay in 1667. It was a set of so
called hakkei, ‘eight-scenes’ verses in Chinese (kanshi).
GyokushuSoban (1600–1668), a priest in charge for
Sekishu of the temple behind the latter’s retreat, replied
with a set of eight poems on the same themes; quoted in
Ozeki (re-ed. 1994), pp. 22–23. Chinese verses (kanshi)
were often added to landscape paintings too.
17. Kojiki (chu) reprint in Nihon koten bungaku taikei
1 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1960s), p. 220, and
footnote 11, p 221; and Nihonshoki (jo) reprint in
Nihon koten bungaku taikei 67 (Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1960s), p. 292, and footnote 15, p. 293.
Both are classics from the early eighth century and
introduce the idea of the Nara valley enclosed by
hills as a green hedge.
composition of scenery in japanese pre-modern gardens
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