In the course of its history, the objective attitude of mind as expressed in garden-making was changed to a subjective mood. Various philosophic principles and religious doctrines came to be inculcated in the gardens, which were used not so much to explain those principles and doctrines, but rather the treatment of the garden from the ï¾µsthetic standpoint was explained by means of principles and doctrines which then controlled the mind of the people. Even long after those principles had ceased to sway the mind, the names had been retained, leaving a collection of symbols. Superstitions of the people too were woven into the garden at one time or another to the extent that the secret of garden-making art consisted mainly of knowing the superstition and devices to conform to it. The laws of direction, of harmony, of five elements, and the principles of cause and effect, of active and passive, of light and shadow, of male and female, or of the nine spirits of the Buddhist pantheon, are still strongly insisted on by some in determining the general plan of the garden or in grouping stones, etc. Zenism, combined with other -isms, strongly established itself in connection with cha-no-yu, which revolutionalised our garden. Its influence still prevails, giving a strong and worthy character to our garden. It aims to bring man closer to Nature in the precincts of the garden, where one may see oneself in right proportion to the Infinite.
