The town of Okayama, in the province of Bizen, boasts a very handsome garden known as the Koraku-En, which at one time formed a part of the grounds surrounding the military palace of the lords of Bizen. It contains a large lake adorned with two islands and terminating in a stream which winds in a serpentine manner through the garden. Plates XXXV. and XXXVI. exhibit different views of the lake and central island, the latter adorned with a small quantity of effective detail, comprising a handsome granite lantern, a few bold rocks, clipped bushes, and picturesque dwarf pine-trees. The other island is connected by a bridge with the shore of the lake and carries a pavilion, or garden arbour, built overhanging the water's edge. The work "Landscape Gardening in Japan" contains a full description of the principal features of this garden, in which reference is made to its two islands, principal hillocks, iris-pool, enormous rocks, and other interesting features. The wide extent of this composition, combined with the large scale imparted to it by the sparing introduction of bold detail, gives it a park-like simplicity and grandeur somewhat similar to that displayed in the large garden at Komagome, described in the text to Plate XXII. The design is however more formal and artificial than that of the latter, and on this account better illustrates the rules of orthodox landscape gardening. The colossal and grandly proportioned keep of the old castle may be seen towering above the large trees of the garden.
