Great care seems to have been taken by teachers of the craft to preserve purity of style. Japanese writers denounce the tendency to make the garden a display of wealth and luxury by over-crowding it with collections of rare plants and rocks. The vulgar ostentation of such methods is condemned as being detrimental to the highest aims of the art, which should be inspired by a genuine love of nature, with the object of enjoying, within a narrow compass, some of the varied beauties of natural scenery. Gardens should be so arranged that the different seasons may contribute in rotation to their artistic excellence. They should form refreshing retreats for hours of leisure and idleness,�or, as oddly expressed by a native writer, "places to stroll in when aroused from sleep,"�rather than resorts for the pleasures of society.
